Country music star Garth Brooks has been accused of rape and sexual assault in a lawsuit filed by an unnamed hair and makeup artist.
In a complaint submitted to Superior Court in Los Angeles, a woman identified as Jane Roe said she had provided hair and makeup services to Brooks from 2017 to 2020.
The woman claimed Brooks raped her in a hotel room in Los Angeles in 2019 when she accompanied him on a trip to help him prepare for an event.
She also said Brooks repeatedly subjected her to unwanted sexual advances, including exposing himself and groping her when they were working together in 2019.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles, says Brooks filed a preemptive lawsuit in Mississippi last month.
In that action, which he filed under an alias, he sought an injunction blocking "extortionate conduct" and alleging the woman was seeking a multimillion dollar payout.
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"(Brooks') efforts to silence our client through the filing of a preemptive complaint in Mississippi was nothing other than an act of desperation and attempted intimidation," the California suit says.
The plaintiff is seeking a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages.
In a statement to the PA news agency, Brooks said: "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 behaviour I am incapable of - ugly acts no human should ever do to another."
He added: "I want to play music tonight. 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."
Brooks, 62, ranks as one of the best-selling musicians of all time with more than 162 million albums sold.
