Country singer Garth Brooks is a household name in the US. Over the course of a thirty-five year career, he’s won tens of awards - including two Grammys and a record 22 Academy of Country Music Awards - has sold 162 million albums and is worth around £305m.
Famous for his rock-tinged country music and hits like Friends In Low Places and Callin’ Baton Rouge, Brooks made headlines for being one of the first US country music artists to sell out UK venues like Wembley.
But now, he’s in the headlines for a different reason. A sexual assault lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday, alleges he raped and harassed one of his employees in 2019: something Brooks firmly denies.
From his early life to his relationship with wife Trisha Yearwood, here’s what to know about the star.
Early life
Troyal Garth Brooks was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in February 1962: the youngest child of Troyal Raymond, who worked at an oil company, and Colleen, who was a country singer. Music seems to have run in the family blood: when he was growing up, Brooks’ parents held regular ‘talent nights’, in which all the children had to participate.
As a result, Brooks learned how to play the guitar and banjo – but initially, his true passion was athletics. He won a track scholarship to Oklahoma State University as a teen, where he competed in javelin, and in the evenings, he formed a band (called Santa Fe) with his roommate, playing to college audiences.
This seems to have ignited something of a spark in Brooks. After he graduated in 1984, he began playing in various clubs and bars around Oklahoma, veering from rock to a country music-based sound. In 1986, he found time to get married – to fellow songwriter Sandy Mahl, with whom he had three daughters – and by 1987, Brooks and Mahl moved to Nashville to make it big.
It worked. In 1989 and 1990, he released his first two albums, both of which were hugely successful and were followed in 1993 by a world tour. He became the first ever American country musician to sell out venues like the Wembley Arena and the Birmingham NEC – and perhaps some of this success was down to his stage persona.
In live shows, his performances were energetic and packed with theatrics – a far cry from the more staid country acts of the day, and one influenced perhaps by KISS, whom Brooks was a massive fan of in his youth.
But this early success was also marred by relationship difficulties. Around the time his first album was released, it was reported that Brooks had cheated on Mahl – something he admitted to in a 1993 interview with Barbara Walters.
"After I wore out a pair of jeans while I was down on my knees begging her to take me back," the pair did reconcile, he said. This was swiftly followed in 1993 by a Super Bowl controversy: Brooks was due to perform the American anthem, but nearly cancelled at the last minute.
According to former NFL executive Don Weiss’ book, Brook had wanted to debut his music video for We Shall Be Free during the broadcast, which featured images of riots and the cross being burnt. The network barred the clip, which led to Brooks leaving the stadium an hour before kickoff – it was, however, eventually resolved.
Fame
By 1999, Brooks had released eight albums, all of which had been wildly successful. His first live album, Double Live, was recorded at various shows over the course of his world tour and became the best-selling live album of all time, going 21 x Platinum.
By 2000, he’d sold 100 million albums in the US alone, and in 2007, he was named the best-selling solo artist in US history, surpassing Elvis Presley.
Not all of his ventures were successful. In 1999, he pivoted to rock’n’roll by creating an entirely new persona, Chris Gaines, whom he wanted to play in a film. Despite that, the album released to accompany it, Garth Brooks in...the Life of Chris Gaines, flopped, and the film was never released.
Perhaps because of this, or because of the conflict between his success and family, Brooks seemed to cool on the idea of being a professional musician. In 2000, he split from Mahl, saying in a statement that they “both agree that we need to get divorced… right now, we're focusing on the impact it will have on the children and how to handle that best, to remain parents even if we don't remain husband and wife."
In 2001, he released his last album, Scarecrow, and said that he wasn’t going to release any new music until his youngest daughter finished high school: 2014.
Soon after, he began dating current wife Trisha Yearwood, whom he married in 2005, though he first met her in 1987 when they were introduced by a mutual friend, Kent Blazy.
When Blazy asked what Brooks thought of Yearwood,"I said, 'Well, it's strange because I felt that feeling like when you just meet your wife?' But I'd been married (to Mahl) for 13 months," he told Ellen DeGeneres. However, he stressed the pair started dating “after the divorce.”
A country singer and cookbook author, Yearwood has often referenced Brooks in her works: one recipe she debuted in 2019 was titled ‘Garth’s Breakfast Bowl’, a breakfast dish that included cheese and garlic tortellini.
"I was telling somebody the other day, I feel so helpless because there's nothing I can't do without her," he told Us in 2023. "There's nothing I can't do with her and there's nothing I can do without her. It's a blessing and a curse that you feel so free and independent when she's there and you're so dependent when she's not there. I don't think she feels this way at all, but I know I do."
Retirement and comeback
The retirement years were quieter for Brooks. He became one of the first musicians to sign an exclusive distribution deal with an exclusive retailer – in this case, Walmart, which promptly released a limited-series compilation of his music.
Much of his time was taken up with charity gigs: he performed five sold-tour shows in 48 hours at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to raise money for those impacted by the 2007 Californian wildfires. In 2009, he suspended his retirement to start a 4-year Vegas residency, but it wasn’t until 2014 that he began releasing new music.
That comeback single, called People Loving People, marked the start of a new world tour and five new albums, the last of which, Time Traveller, was released in 2023.
The last decade hasn’t been without controversy, though: in 2013, Brooks was sued for fraud by his former business associate, Lisa Sanderson. She claimed that Brooks hadn’t paid her a salary in 20 years, and accused him of tax fraud, adding that he was a “paranoid, angry, deceitful and vindictive man who will turn against those closest to him on a dime.” Brooks denied the allegations, and a jury ruled in his favour.
Allegations
On Thursday, an anonymous woman, using the pseudonym “Jane Roe”, filed a 27-page lawsuit with the Los Angeles Superior Court accusing the star of rape, sexual assault and battery.
The lawsuit alleges that she was working as a hairstylist and makeup artist for Brooks at the time of the incidents. Between 2017-20, it says, he repeatedly groped her and made sexually explicit comments to her; in 2019, the pair travelled on his private jet to Los Angeles for a Grammys tribute.
When they arrived at the hotel, the lawsuit states that Brooks had only booked one suite – and once she had entered it, he appeared naked in the doorway and raped her. It also alleges that he continued to make sexual advances after the incident, and even proposed that they have a threesome with Yearwood.
Brooks strongly denies the allegations. "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 in a statement to the BBC. “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. In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another."
He added: "I want to play music tonight. 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."
