Garth Brooks Speaks out on Sexual Assault Allegations

The country music star is denying the claims made against him by his former makeup artist.

By Libby Birk

Garth Brooks is breaking his silence after a makeup artist accused him Thursday of sexual assault. The country music megastar denied the multiple allegations in a statement made to USA TODAY and other media outlets.

"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 Thursday. "It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face."

"Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money," he continued. "In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of – ugly acts no human should ever do to another."

"I want to play music tonight. I want to continue our good deeds going forward," he said. "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."

Brooks played his scheduled performance at Caesars Palace Thursday night – part of his ongoing Vegas residency – and shared a photo from the show on social media. "If there was ever a night that I really needed this, TONIGHT was that night!" he captioned the photo. Thank you for my life!!!!! love, g."

Brooks' former employee, referred to as Jane Roe in the lawsuit, alleged that Brooks hired her knowing she was going through financial hardships and subsequently took advantage of her by sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions in 2019. Roe said Brooks once invited her on a work trip to Los Angeles where he was set to perform a Grammys tribute, and allegedly raped her in a hotel room that he booked for the two of them.

Roe also alleged that Brooks, who has been married to country music star Trisha Yearwood since 2005, exposed his genitals to her repeatedly, shared sexual fantasies with her – such as his desire to have a threesome with her and Yearwood – and sent her sexually explicit text messages.

The "Friends in Low Places" singer previously denied Roe's allegations in a follow-up complaint to her lawsuit and filed a motion to move forward with the legal cast under his anonymous plaintiff name
John Doe."

"We filed suit against this person nearly a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character," Brooks said in the statement. "We filed it anonymously for the sake of families on both sides."

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Documents obtained by CNN state that Roe is "well aware of the substantial, irreparable damage such false allegations would do to Plaintiff's well-earned reputation as a decent and caring person, along with the unavoidable damage to his family and the irreparable damage to his career and livelihood that would result if she made good on her threat to 'publicly file' her fabricated lawsuit."

Roe's attorneys, Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker, said that she will continue to seek justice. "We applaud our client's courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks," the lawyers said in a statement to NBC News. "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."

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