Garth Brooks is accused of rape and assault in a former employee's lawsuit

Garth Brooks, one of country music's biggest stars, was accused of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed by his former makeup and hair salon on Thursday, NPR reported.

In the lawsuit against Brooks, an unidentified woman alleged that the musician sexually assaulted her while she worked for Brooks in 2019 after years of unwanted advances. She also added that Brooks filed a lawsuit against her last month to clear 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 harassed endlessly with threats, lies and tragic stories about my future if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It was like a loaded gun was brandished in my face.

The lawsuit alleged that the woman had worked for Brooks' wife, singer Trisha Yearwood, since 1999. However, in 2019, her life was hit by financial difficulties, which prompted Brooks to offer her more work with him. The woman alleged that Brooks took advantage of her need to work. According to the filing, she said Brooks exposed himself to her during one incident. In another case, she claimed that Brooks raped her in a Los Angeles hotel suite while Brooks was preparing for a Grammy tribute.

The lawsuit was filed in California under the state's Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act. This allows people to bring and revive sexual abuse claims that could have been barred by the statute of limitations.

Brooks remains a high-profile figure in the country music world decades after entering the industry. According to the New York Times, the artist has sold tens of millions of albums outside of country music and continues to play to sold-out stadiums.

But the lawsuit paints a different picture. One of Nashville's most powerful artists allegedly used his power to silence a woman. Three weeks ago, an anonymous lawsuit was filed in Mississippi identifying “a Tennessee-based celebrity and public figure” who said a Mississippi resident had made “false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct that she claims they took place years ago,” The New York Times reported. The unidentified man asked a judge to protect his identity and dismiss the allegations against him.

But the lawsuit filed Thursday called the Mississippi lawsuit “a blatant attempt to further control and victimize his sexual assault victim by using his multimillionaire resources to outsmart 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 message explaining why she couldn't work in a hostile environment. Her message said, “I mean no harm to you, and if you truly appreciate my work, I would be happy to stop by tomorrow and/or whenever you need my services.” The lawsuit said she also sent the message Brooks' wife Yearwood sent.

But the woman also said Brooks took her phone and deleted some of his text messages. The lawsuit added that some text messages still existed and that court records included a partially redacted image of a text message between Brooks and the woman that appeared to be flirtatious. The text, the lawsuit says, was one of Brooks' attempts to “encourage Ms. Roe to speak to him in a sexualized manner.”

The lawsuit against Brooks is one of many lawsuits filed in the last year against dominant male figures in the music industry such as Sean “Diddy” Combs. Civil suits against Combs and other figures have also been filed under the California law and a similar one in New York, The New York Times reported.