Garth Brooks is taking legal action in response to a lawsuit filed by a former hairstylist and makeup artist of his that accused him of sexual assault and batterylast week.
The “Friends in Low Places” singer, 62, filed a pair of complaints in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on Tuesday, Oct. 8, denying the allegations the woman — whom he names in one of the documents — made against him and claiming that he was the “victim of a shakedown.”
In one of the complaints obtained by PEOPLE, Brooks used the pseudonym “John Doe” and noted that he would “re-file his complaint without pseudonyms” against “Jane Doe,” since the woman’s attorneys “disclosed” his identity to the press. In that filing, he also claimed that he was seeking to “defend himself against extortion.”
In his second complaint, Brooks asked for a trial by jury in order to “obtain relief” from the woman who he claimed was also attempting “defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress” on him.
Garth Brooks in 2023.
Jason Kempin/Getty
The musician alleged that the woman “devised a malicious scheme to blackmail” him into paying her “millions of dollars” after he “rejected her request for salaried employment and medical benefits.” He also claimed that she “threatened” to “publicly disclose false claims” about him that would “imperil his business and reputation.”
He further claimed in his court filing that she had worked as an “independent contractor” for him for 15 years before relocating from Tennessee to Mississippi. He said following her move, she “encountered financial difficulties” and asked him for assistance, which he claims he offered.
Brooks claims the woman eventually asked for “salaried employment and medical benefits,” but when he denied her request, she “responded with false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago.” The allegations, which included sexual “grooming,” “unwanted sexual touching and sexual assault” among others, were allegedly submitted in a “demand letter” to Brooks and “others” whom he worked with on July 17, 2024.
“The July 17 demand letter was the first time Plaintiff learned of these allegations, none of which has any basis in fact,” the complaint alleged.
He claimed the woman then “threatened” to “publicly file” the letter — which he called “false and defamatory” — in a “draft civil complaint” against him unless he agreed to pay her “millions of dollars.” He said in the filing that she threatened that if he “failed to meet this demand” for payment, he “would face exposure of many millions of dollars ‘based on [his] net worth.’ “
In addition to a trial, Brooks requested a “declaratory judgment” from the court that her allegations “against him of sexual misconduct are untrue” and compensatory and punitive damages, along with attorney’s fees.
Brooks’ court filings come after the woman filed a complaint in California state court on Oct. 3 alleging that the country singer exposed his genitals to her, spoke openly about sex and related fantasies, changed clothes in her presence and sent sexually explicit text messages to her in 2019.
“The Dance” singer publicly denied the allegations in a statement to PEOPLE saying, “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. 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,” the statement continues. “We filed suit against this person nearly a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of character. We filed it anonymously for the sake of families on both sides.”
“I want to play music tonight. I want to continue our good deeds going forward. It breaks my heart [that] 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,” he concluded.
