Things are already getting nasty.
Last week, Garth Brooks was accused of sexual assault and rape by a former makeup artist who filed a lawsuit against the country music singer in a California court.
The complaint, which was filed anonymously by a woman identified only as Jane Doe, claims that she began working for Garth’s wife Trisha Yearwood as a makeup artist and hairstylist back in 2017, and later began working for Garth after she encountered financial difficulties and he started giving her more work.
But the woman claims that in 2019, she arrived at Garth’s house to do his makeup and the singer walked out of the shower with an erection while she was at his house, and escalating sexual assault that eventually led to him raping her in a hotel room while the two were on a trip to Los Angeles for a performance. And she also claims that Garth expressed his interest in having a threesome with the woman and Trisha.
Garth has vehemently denied the allegations, claiming that they’re an attempt to extort him out of “millions of dollars” and that they describe “behavior he is incapable of.”
“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.
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 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.”
And in fact, Garth also filed a lawsuit back in September against his accuser in Mississippi court (where the woman now lives) attempting to stop her from filing her complaint against him. His lawsuit, which was also filed anonymously, sought a judgment declaring that the allegations were untrue and prohibiting her from suing him.
Well obviously that didn’t happen before she was able to file her lawsuit, so now there’s no need for the Mississippi lawsuit to remain anonymous. And Garth has amended his complaint to not only add his own name to the lawsuit, but he also named his accuser.
In a separate filing, which along with the amended complaint has been obtained and reviewed by Whiskey Riff, Garth claims he’s the victim of a “shakedown” and blasts the attorneys for his accuser for naming him publicly before a court could decide whether the parties should be allowed to proceed under pseudonyms.
He then informed the court that he intended to refile his complaint without the pseudonyms – and that’s just what he did. Instead of referring to his accuser as “Jane Roe,” as she did herself in the California lawsuit, Garth included the woman’s full name on the complaint.
And her attorneys aren’t happy.
In a statement, attorneys for his accuser blasted the country singer, and promised to seek sanctions against him.
“Garth Brooks just revealed his true self. Out of spite and to punish, he publicly named a rape victim. With no legal justification, Brooks outed her because he thinks the laws don’t apply to him. On behalf of our client, we will be moving for maximum sanctions against him immediately.”
Interestingly, they also claim that Garth offered “millions of dollars” to stop his accuser from going public with her allegations:
“He is far from the victim of a shakedown and in fact offered millions of dollars to keep this matter from becoming public.”
Garth briefly addressed the allegations during his Inside Studio G livestream on Monday, claiming that it could take two years to be resolved:
“This thing is on. It’s gonna happen. And people are telling me it could be up to two years, so my suggestion is, we all take a deep breath, we all just kind of settle in and let’s hold hands and take the trip together, ok?
Because it is something that you cannot talk about. That’s all we can say about it. So for those who joined us tonight to hear about that, I bid you a wonderful rest of your night because that’s the last we can say about.”
Sounds like he’s ready to fight – and it’s already getting nasty in court.
What Is Garth Brooks’ Net Worth?
Of course the two will fight it out in court where hopefully the truth will prevail and justice will be served. It goes without saying that the accusations against Garth are disgusting and should be taken seriously. And if the court finds evidence to prove that he is indeed guilty of this disturbing behavior, he should be punished to the full extent that the legal system allows… and since this is a civil matter, that means a lot of money.
Of course, extortion is a thing and there has been instances of false sexual assault claims made against high-profile actors, athletes and celebrities in recent years, with Trevor Bauer’s case perhaps being one of the most notable and most recent. A woman was indicted on fraud charges after falsely accusing him of rape and sexual assault. These instances should be taken seriously as well. A allegation as serious rape carries with it a lot of power to damage someone’s reputation and severely impact their ability to earn money going forward. Bauer still hasn’t pitched in the major leagues.
In the state of California, there is no cap on the amount of money you can sue for in a sexual assault case. The lawsuit has requested compensatory damages, in addition to punitive damages, legal fees, other costs and whatever else the court deems appropriate.
So just how much is Garth worth?
According to Ledgernote, Garth is worth roughly $430 million, and of course, that’s just on his own, not the money Trisha Yearwood has brought into their marriage. Only Dolly Parton has more achieved more in country music. Shania Twain, the late great Toby Keith, and the King of country music, George Strait, round out the Top 5.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Garth falls in the $300-$350 million range, but either way, it’s an insane amount of money.
It’s no secret that Garth Brooks is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold over 170 million records worldwide. He is the only artist to have achieved nine Diamond-certified albums in the United States, surpassing even The Beatles.
His 1990 album No Fences was a major milestone in terms of crossover popularity in country music, featuring iconic hits like “Friends in Low Places.” Garth Brooks has had over 20 number-one hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, including timeless tracks like “The Dance,” “If Tomorrow Never Comes,” and “The Thunder Rolls.”
Brooks has won the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award seven times, setting a record for the most wins in the category. He was named ACM’s Entertainer of the Decade for the 1990s, and has won two Grammy Awards. His 1997 Central Park concert drew an audience of over 980,000 people, one of the largest crowds ever for a music event.
Yeah, it’s been quite the career for Garth Brooks, who’s legacy may forever be changed by this lawsuit, perhaps deservedly so. Like I said earlier, here’s to finding the truth and justice prevailing.
Tina Fey Tried To “Purposely Embarrass” Garth With 1998 SNL Skit
In November of 1999, Garth hosted the NBC staple show SNL…and he pulled double duty, because the musical guest was Chris Gaines (Garth’s punk/emo rock alter ego).
That’s comical within itself, so it’s no surprise that it worked on Saturday Night Live. His double duty appearance was actually his second time hosting the show, as he had been called in to host an episode in the 1998 season as well.
Brooks is widely regarded as a great host when you look at the history of Saturday Night Live, probably because he was honestly really good in all of the skits. It was during his very first SNL hosting gig that he donned a dress and played a character in a skit called “Old French Whore.”
What character did the country music star play in the sketch? Pardon my French, but Garth played the titular “Old French Whore.” Probably can’t get away with that idea in the 2020s…
Tina Fey, who is now a very renowned and well-known actress and writer in comedy, had just got started in the SNL writing room at this point, and was the mind behind the skit that called for Garth to put on a dress and do his best French accent. She confessed to Conan O’Brien that she intentionally wrote that skit to embarrass Garth after he turned down an idea she had to make him play a singing cowboy (not very original, I must say).
She said:
“I was kind of insulted by that and I remember I purposely tried to embarrass him in the read through, So I wrote this scene where he played an old French prostitute.
That’s as far away from cowboy as you can get, right? And he did, and he did a good job and we ended up doing it on the show.”
And I don’t mean this to come off as disrespectful, but it was almost scary how natural he was in the part. It must have been all of the practice with Chris Gaines that allowed him to so easily show off his comedy chops.
The sketch’s loose premise is a gameshow where contestants were paired up with…we’ll just say women of the night, and had to answer questions that were somewhat related to their field of work. And the great Will Ferrell handled the hosting duties.
Garth was the smartest and most sophisticated of all of the “women” on the gameshow, and managed to pull off a pretty decent French accent. I’ll let you be the judge of it, but all in all, it was a funny skit (better than most of the stuff SNL does now).
