Garth Brooks returns to the stage after denying rape allegations

Garth Brooks returned to the stage Thursday after denying allegations of rape and sexual misconduct made against him in a civil lawsuit filed by a former employee.

The country superstar posted a message to fans after playing his final Las Vegas residency show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, telling them how much he needed the gig.

“If there was ever a night I really needed this, it was TONIGHT! Thank you for my life!!!!! Lots of love, g,” he wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo from the concert.

On Thursday, the “Friends in Low Places” hitmaker vehemently denied allegations from a former employee identified in court documents as “Jane Roe” – a hair and makeup stylist who worked for Brooks and had worked for his wife, country star Trisha Yearwood, since 1999. The woman alleged that Brooks raped her in a Los Angeles hotel room in May 2019 and subjected her to “other horrific sexual conduct” and harassment while she worked for him, says the complaint was filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

In her complaint, obtained by The Times, the woman alleged that Brooks “used the fact that Ms. Roe dared to speak about the harm he forced upon her as an opportunity to inflict even more harm and pain.” “By filing a pre-emptive complaint, the Mississippi court wants to dismiss her lawsuit in California.

“Brooks desperately wants to prevent his millions of fans from knowing about the terrible things he said and did to a young employee who did nothing to deserve such treatment,” the complaint says. “But our legal system is unable to allow wealthy perpetrators to bypass victims of sexual assault who seek to hold perpetrators accountable. But that’s exactly what Brooks is trying to do with the abusive Mississippi action.”

The woman’s lawsuit lists assault, battery, sexual violence and gender-based violence among the complaints. She is seeking a jury trial and punitive and exemplary damages for her “mental and physical pain and suffering.”

Brooks, 62, responded to the filing Thursday by denying the claims and accusing the woman of blackmail.

“For the past two months, I have been endlessly plagued with threats, lies and tragic stories about what my future would be if I did not write a multi-million dollar check. It was like a loaded gun was being waved in my face,” Brooks said in a statement to the Times.

“Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money. In my eyes, that means I’m admitting to behavior that I’m incapable of – ugly acts that no human being should ever do to another,” he said.

The country star said last month that he had anonymously filed a lawsuit against the woman in U.S. District Court in Mississippi “to speak out against extortion and defamation of character.”

“I want to play music tonight. I would like to continue our good deeds in the future. It breaks my heart that these wonderful things are now being called into question. “I trust the system, I’m not afraid of the truth and I’m not the man they made me out to be,” he said.