Garth Brooks, one of the biggest stars in country music, has been accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed by his ex-makeup and hair stylist on Thursday, NPR reported.
In the lawsuit against Brooks, an unidentified woman claimed that during her tenure working for Brooks, the musician sexually assaulted her in 2019 after years of unwanted advances. She also added that Brooks filed a lawsuit against her last month to absolve himself of the alleged abuse and silence her.
The country musician has categorically denied the allegations. Brooks said in a statement Thursday, "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. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face."
The lawsuit alleged that the woman has worked for Brooks' wife, singer Trisha Yearwood since 1999. However, in 2019, financial strife hit her life, which prompted Brooks to offer her more work with him. The woman stated that Brooks took advantage of her need for work. According to the filing, she said in one incident Brooks exposed himself to her. In another circumstance, she claimed that Brooks raped her in a Los Angeles hotel suite while Brooks he was preparing for a Grammys tribute.
The lawsuit was filed in California under the state's Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act. This allows people to file and revive sexual abuse claims that could have been barred by the statute of limitations.
Brooks is a high-standing figure in the country music world decades after his start in the industry. Even outside of the country music sphere, the artist has sold tens of millions of albums and continues to play sold-out stadiums, according to The New York Times.
But the lawsuit paints a different picture. One that alleges one of Nashville's powerful artists allegedly used his power to silence a woman. Three weeks ago, an anonymous lawsuit was filed in Mississippi which identified “a celebrity and public figure who resides in Tennessee” who said a woman residing in Mississippi made “false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago,” The New York Times reported. The unidentified man asked a judge to protect his identity and strike down the allegations against him.
However, the lawsuit filed on Thursday called the Mississippi lawsuit “a blatant attempt to further control and bully his sexual assault victim by utilizing his multimillionaire resources to game the legal system.”
Additionally, the makeup artist stopped working for Brooks in 2020, a year after the alleged assault. The lawsuit said the woman sent him a text explaining why she couldn't work in a hostile environment. Her message said, “I mean you no harm, and if you truly value my work, I am happy to show up tomorrow and/or whenever you may need my services.” The lawsuit said she also sent the message to Brooks' wife, Yearwood.
But the woman also said that Brooks took her phone and deleted some of his texts. The lawsuit added that some texts remain and the court filing included a partly redacted image of a text between Brooks and the woman that seem to be flirty. The text, the suit said, was one of the attempts Brooks “encouraged Ms. Roe to speak in a sexualized manner to him."
The suit against Brooks is one of many lawsuits filed against dominating male figures in the music industry in the last year like Sean "Diddy" Combs. Civil claims against Combs and other figures were also filed through the California law and a similar one in New York, The New York Times reported.
