US country singer Garth Brooks has denied allegations that he sexually assaulted a former hair and makeup artist and that he is: “not they man they have painted me to be”.
Warning: This story contains graphic content that may be distressing to some readers.
Brooks released a statement in response to a lawsuit from a woman who claims he raped her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.
The woman, known as the pseudonym Jane Roe, filed the lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court.
It alleges that Brooks, who is the second best-selling artist of all time in the US, took advantage of her financial situation by offering her more frequent work and then engaging in a pattern of sexual harassment and assault.
Sent to US publications US weekly and Billboard, Brooks’s statement accuses the complainant of attempting to extort him.
“For the last two months, I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies, and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars,” he said.
“It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.
“I want to play music tonight,” he added.
“I want to continue our good deeds going forward. It breaks my heart these wonderful things are in question now. I trust the system, I do not fear the truth, and I am not the man they have painted me to be.”
Ms Roe is represented by lawyer Douglas Wigdor, who also represented women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
In the legal complaint, the woman said she worked for Brooks’s wife, country singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999 and started working for Brooks in 2017.
She claimed an assault occurred when she travelled to Los Angeles with Brooks who was performing at the Grammy Awards in October 2019.
The singer usually travelled with a group but on this occasion, he and Ms Roe were alone on his private jet.
The lawsuit said she was in disbelief when she realised that Brooks had booked a hotel suite with only one bedroom and she did not have a separate room.
Shortly after they arrived, she alleged he appeared naked in the doorway to the bedroom and raped her.
The suit says that he then proceeded as though nothing had happened and expected her to do his hair and makeup immediately after.
The suit also alleges, in graphic detail, an incident when she was at Brooks’s home earlier that year.
It said Brooks appeared naked in front of her, grabbed her hands and put them on his genitals.
The woman’s suit also says Brooks exposed himself to her many other times and talked about sexual fantasies with her and sent her explicit text messages.
She said she was forced to keep working for Brooks because of financial hardship, which he knew about and took advantage of.
“We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks,” a statement sent by Wigdor LLP to the ABC said.
“The complaint filed today demonstrates that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industries, but also in the world of country music.”
The lawsuit said that Brooks filed his own pre-emptive lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi last month, in which both him and the woman are anonymous.
In court filings in that case, the plaintiff, going by John Doe, says the allegations are “wholly untrue,” and he first learned of them in July when she threatened to publicly sue him unless he gave her millions of dollars.
He asked a judge to stop the woman from “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, and false light invasion of privacy”.
In Thursday’s statement Brooks said: “We filed suit against this person nearly a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character.
“We filed it anonymously for the sake of families on both sides.
“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behaviour I am incapable of — ugly acts no human should ever do to another.”
“We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions and his efforts to silence our client through the filing of a pre-emptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation,” Wigdor LLP said.
“We encourage others who may have been victimised to contact us as no survivor should suffer in silence.”