Garth Brooks fought back against a newly filed lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and battery during a livestream with his fans on Monday.
The 62-year-old country music icon addressed ‘the elephant in the room’ during TalkShopLive’s Inside Studio G chat, according to Taste Of Country.
‘A lot’s happened in the last two weeks,’ he said, alluding to the allegations leveled against him.
‘This thing is on, it’s gonna happen, and people are telling me it could be up to two years. OK?’ he continued, seemingly referring to the upcoming legal battle.
Brooks is accused by an anonymous ‘Jane Doe’ of raping her on a work trip to Los Angeles in 2019, which he denied in a preemptive countersuit that was filed anonymous, and then public in a statement last week.
Garth Brooks fought back against a newly filed lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault and battery during a livestream with his fans on Monday; pictured in May 2023 in Frisco, Texas
The makeup artist had reportedly been employed by Brooks as an independent contractor for 15 years prior to the alleged sexual assault.
In the livestream on Monday, Brooks went on to urge his fans to ‘take a deep breath, just kinda settle in and let’s hold hands and take a trip together.’
He indicated that he wouldn’t have much to say about the lawsuit, which he said could take two years to play out in court, adding, ‘It is something that we cannot talk about. That’s all we can say about it.’
The hitmaker avoided going into any specifics and immediately changed the subject by praising his wife, fellow country singer Trisha Yearwood, for her commitment to their philanthropic projects.
Last week, an insider told Us Weekly that Yearwood and the couple’s three children are all convinced of Brooks’ innocence.
The singer filed his anonymous preemptive countersuit in federal court in Mississippi in September, though his accuser eventually filed her suit in California on October 3.
In his filing, he said the lawsuit was filed after he received a ‘demand letter’ from Roe’s attorney.
In her lawsuit, the anonymous woman accused Brooks of fostering a sexually hostile workplace prior to the alleged rape in 2019.
Brooks told fans that the sexual assault lawsuit against him could take two years to play out in court, and he said he wouldn’t be able to publicly discuss it during that time; seen in May 2021 in Washington, DC
He urged his fans to ‘take a deep breath, just kinda settle in and let’s hold hands and take a trip together,’ before changing the subject to praise his wife Trisha Yearwood for her charity work
She claimed he ‘took advantage’ of financial difficulties she was suffering around 2019 by calling on her for sexual favors.
Roe accused Brooks of emerging naked from a shower on one occasion ‘with an erection’ that he forced her to touch. He allegedly grabbed her hand and told her that he fantasized about the moment and wanted her to perform a sex act on him.
She claimed things escalated in May 2019, when he asked her to travel with him to Los Angeles for a Grammy Awards tribute to Sam Moore. She claimed he booked a one-bedroom hotel suite and refused to provide her with her own room.
She accused Brooks of brutally raping her during the trip, before going on to send her explicit text messages and encouraging her to sext him in return.
The woman also claimed he boasted that he had ‘f***ed multiple women in every corner of a hotel room,’ ‘white, Black, brown, or whatever… on every surface’.
She said Brooks repeatedly spoke of the potential of having a threesome with Yearwood and Roe, and he allegedly exposed himself to her and groped her body including her breasts multiple times, the lawsuit claimed.
Strikingly, Roe believed Yearwood ‘overheard [his suggestion of a threesome] on at least one occasion,’ and she said his wife was present for one particularly lewd conversation in which Brooks spoke of inventing a shampoo bottle that would double as a dildo.
Roe claimed the conversation made her so uncomfortable that she would not join in, which angered Brooks so much he allegedly ‘slammed his fists down on the kitchen counter in frustration so hard that items on the counter moved and he leaned in and spoke in a threatening manner to Ms. Roe.’
Roe’s legal team accused Brooks of pretending to entertain talks of a settlement, even as he used her sexual assault complaint to file his own preemptive lawsuit.
In the country superstar’s lawsuit, he claimed Roe began suffering financial difficulties following a relocation to Mississippi.
He alleged that she asked him for financial help, which he said he provided, but Brooks said the woman’s ‘demands for financial assistance only increased, with defendant ultimately asking plaintiff for salaried employment and medical benefits.’
Last week, Us Weekly reported that Yearwood and the couple’s three children are all convinced of his innocence; Brooks and Yearwood pictured in May 2023 in Frisco, Texas
Brooks claimed the woman suffered financial difficulties after moving to Mississippi. He said her demands increased after he initially helped her; pictured at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards
Brooks refused and, he claimed, ‘she responded with false and outrageous allegations of sexual misconduct she claims occurred years ago’.
His lawsuits says an attorney acting for Roe on July 17 sent Brooks a ‘demand letter alleging a litany of sexual misconduct…ranging from allegations of sexual “grooming,” creation of a sexually hostile work environment, unwanted sexual touching, and sexual assault.’
In his lawsuit, Brooks claimed Roe also alleged her belief that he, ‘planned to hire someone to murder her.’ This allegation was not included in Roe’s own lawsuit.
Brooks claimed the demand letter was the first time he heard any of the allegations being made against him.
He stated that the letter threatened to ‘publicly file’ a civil complaint — the draft of which was included — unless he ‘agreed to pay… millions of dollars.’
‘The letter referred to various celebrity sexual misconduct lawsuits featuring multi-million-dollar jury awards,’ his lawsuit claimed.
In a follow-up letter dated August 23, 2024, Brook’s filing says Roe again ‘offered to refrain from publicly filing her false and defamatory lawsuit…in exchange for a multi-million-dollar payment.’
He claimed: ‘She threatened that if [Brooks] failed to meet this demand, he would face exposure of many millions of dollars ‘based on [his] net worth.’
As the Recording Industry Association of America’s top solo artist in history, selling nearly 150 million albums, the Friends in Low Places, singer has an estimated net worth of between $300 million and $350 million.
He has at times been the highest-paid celebrity on the planet. Between June 2017 and June 2018, he earned $45 million. In the same period in 2019 — the year Roe accuses him of raping her — he earned $25 million.
Brooks’s country singer wife Trisha Yearwood’s own wealth brings their net worth as a couple to around $400 million.
Jane Doe claimed Brooks raped her on a work trip, then sent her explicitly sexual texts. She also says he tried to talk her into a threesome with his wife Trisha Yearwood, with Yearwood allegedly overhearing one of the discussions. Brooks and Yearwood are pictured in April 2022
Married for 21 years, Yearwood, 60, and Brooks have homes in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as Nashville, Tennessee, and Malibu, California.
Brooks broke his silence on Thursday night, hours after issuing a strenuous legal denial of the allegations of rape and battery claims leveled by the make-up artist whom he has known for more than 20 years.
Sharing an update to Instagram after his show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Brooks wrote to fans that he ‘really needed this.’
Uploading a photograph of the huge crowd who turned out to cheer him on he wrote, ‘If ever there was a night that I really needed this, TONIGHT was that night! Thank you for my life!!!!love, g.’
