Garth Brooks Responds to Sexual Assault Lawsuit: ‘I Am Not the Man They Have Painted Me to Be’

After Garth Brooks was accused of rape and other sexual misconduct in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles on Thursday (Oct. 3), the country star has responded and insists he is “not the man they have painted me to be.”

The allegations come from an unnamed woman who claims Brooks sexually assaulted her while she worked for him as a hairstylist and makeup artist starting in 2017 after working for his wife, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood, since 1999. In the lawsuit, the Jane Roe accuser says Brooks raped her during a May 2019 stay in an L.A. hotel room and also exposed her to “other appalling sexual conduct” during that same year.

Thursday’s lawsuit also brought to light an earlier suit filed last month in Mississippi federal court by an anonymous “celebrity” plaintiff in an effort to keep an accuser from going public with sexual abuse allegations and referring to them as “ongoing attempted extortion.”

In a statement sent late Thursday to Billboard, Brooks denies the sexual assault allegations — saying the threats and accusations “felt like having a loaded gun waved in my face” — and confirms that he was behind last month’s mystery Mississippi filing, which he says was done anonymously “for the sake of families on both sides.”

“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,” Brooks began his statement. “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. 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,” Brooks concluded, referencing his scheduled concert Thursday evening at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace as part of his ongoing Las Vegas residency. “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.”

This article was originally published by Billboard U.S.