UPDATE, 6:22 PM: Hours after a Jane Roe took Garth Brooks to court on claims of rape and more, the singer is calling the accusations a shakedown for “millions of dollars.”

“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 says in a statement his team sent to Deadline this evening. “It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face.”

The ex-make-up artist and stylist to Brooks and his spouse and fellow country music superstar Trisha Yearwood has said in her filing Thursday in LA Superior Court that she was the victim of an extremely violent attack by the “Friends in Low Places” singer, as well as constant groping, lewd remarks and more for years starting in 2019. Stating that Brooks took advantage of her in no small part because he knew how much she needed work, Jane Roe took the performer to task for a lawsuit that he filed last month in Mississippi to pre-empt her going public.

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Brooks says now he did it to defend himself against extortion.

 “Hush money, no matter how much or how little, is still hush money,” Brooks stated tonight. “In my mind, that means I am admitting to behavior I am incapable of—ugly acts no human should ever do to another,” he added. “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.”

Watch on Deadline

PREVIOUSLY, 1:57 PM: A longtime make-up artist and stylist to Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks is alleging that Brooks brutally sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions in an extremely graphic lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles.

“Brooks seized what he saw as an opportunity to subject a female employee to a side of Brooks that he conceals from the public,” according to the suit, which seeks a jury trial. The employee is identified as Jane Roe, and alleges the country superstar increasingly began hiring her in 2019. “This side of Brooks believes he is entitled to sexual gratification when he wants it, and using a female employee to get it, is fair game.”

With accounts of repeated “painful and traumatic” rape, battery and other assaults, “fair game” is an understatement in a filing so vivid that at one point it talks about actions by the multiple Grammy-winning “Thunder Road” singer too sordid “to mention here.”

Asking for unspecified damages, the six-claim complaint from Jane Roe comes as Brooks, under the cloak of a John Doe, went to federal court in Mississippi in recent weeks to stop the so-called “fabricated lawsuit.” He claimed that if Jane Roe’s allegations were known to the public it would do “substantial, irreparable damage” to his reputation and livelihood.

In fact, that bridge seems to have been crossed now, as the Wigdor Law-represented Jane Roe calls out the Brooks suit in her own action.

“The Abusive Mississippi Action by Brooks is a blatant attempt to further control and bully his sexual assault victim by utilizing his multi-millionaire resources to game the legal system,” declares Jane Roe’s complaint about the singer’s legal move “while pretending to be in discussions with Ms. Roe to resolve her legal claims against him.”

Jane Roe’s filing goes on to say: “Brooks is desperate to prevent his millions of fans from learning about the horrific things he has said and done to a junior female employee who did nothing to deserve such treatment. But our legal system is not in place to allow wealthy wrongdoers the ability to run work-arounds on sexual assault victims who attempt to hold perpetrators accountable.”

Representatives for Brooks have not responded to request for comment on the sexual assault allegations. If they do, this post will be updated.

Jane Roe’s attorneys did have something to say outside of the confines of their client’s detailed complaint

“We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks,” lawyers Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen and Hayley Baker said in a joint statement as Jane Roe’s complaint was being filed today.

“The complaint filed today demonstrates that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, Hollywood and in the rap and rock and roll industries but also in the world of country music,” the trio said. “We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions and his 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. We encourage others who may have been victimized to contact us as no survivor should suffer in silence.”