Garth Brooks accused of rape in lawsuit from hair-and-makeup artist

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who says she worked as a hair and makeup stylist Garth Brooks A lawsuit filed Thursday alleges he raped her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2019.

The woman did not use her name and goes by Jane Roe in the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Brooks denied the allegations in a forceful statement and admitted he tried to go to court to stop Thursday's lawsuit from being filed.

The woman said in the lawsuit that she worked for Brooks' wife, a country singer Trisha YearwoodSince 1999, and also started working for Brooks in 2017.

He said the attack occurred while he was traveling from Nashville to Los Angeles with Brooks, who was performing with soul singer Sam Moore at a Grammy Award tribute to Moore in October 2019.

Brooks usually traveled with an entourage, but the two were alone on his private jet and he booked just one hotel suite for the two of them, the lawsuit said.

The woman alleged that he raped her naked at the bedroom door in a suit.

The lawsuit says she then proceeded as if nothing had happened and expected him to be done with her hair and makeup right away.

The woman's lawsuit alleges that in early 2019, when she was at Brooks' home, he stripped in front of her, grabbed her hand and groped her.

Brooks filed a precedent-setting lawsuit in federal court in Mississippi last month, in which both he and the woman remain anonymous.

In court filings in that case, the plaintiff, through John Doe, said the allegations were “absolutely false” and that he first learned of them in July when she publicly threatened to sue him if he didn't pay her millions of dollars.

He asked a judge to prevent “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation and false light invasion of privacy.”

“For the past two months, I have been subjected to endless threats, lies and tragic stories about what my future holds,” Brooks' statement read. “It was like shoving a loaded gun in my face.”

Brooks said she filed the lawsuit anonymously “in the interest of both families.”

“I believe in the system, I'm not afraid of the truth, and I'm not the man they paint me as,” his statement concluded.

The woman's lawsuit also alleges that Brooks exposed himself to her several more times and fantasized about her sexually and sent her explicit text messages.

He said he was forced to continue working for Brooks because of financial difficulties, which he knew and took advantage of.

An email to the woman's attorney asking if she had reported her allegations to police was not immediately answered.

Oklahoma-born Brooks, 62, was one of country music's biggest stars of the 1990s, with hits including “Friends in Low Places” and “The Thunder Rolls.” He brings arena-rock theatrics to his concerts and pop-music sensibilities to his recordings. He achieved massive success that went beyond the general country audience.

She married fellow country star Yearwood in 2005. A representative for Yearwood did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the lawsuit.