Garth Brooks has broken his silence after being accused of sexual assault and assault.

“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, 62, said Thursday, Oct. 3, in a statement Us weekly.

“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 actions that no human being should ever do to another,” he continued. “We filed a lawsuit against this person almost a month ago to speak out against extortion and defamation of reputation. In the interest of the families of both sides, we filed the complaint anonymously.”

“I want to play music tonight,” he added. “I want 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.”

Brooks was named in a complaint obtained by CNN on Thursday, October 3, in which an anonymous woman claimed the country singer raped her in 2019 while she worked as a hairdresser for him.

In the lawsuit, the hairdresser (named Jane Roe) claimed that she started working for Brooks in 2017 after frequently providing his wife’s glamor. Trisha Yearwood. Roe also alleged that Brooks sent her sexually explicit text messages, repeatedly exposed his genitals in her presence and made “repeated comments” about “having a threesome” with Yearwood, 60. (Brooks and Yearwood have been married since 2005, after each divorcing.)

Before Roe’s lawsuit, Brooks filed an anonymous complaint to stop her from repeating the allegations and vehemently disputed her account.

“The defendant’s allegations are not true,” Brooks’ filing states, according to CNN. “The defendant, however, recognizes the significant, irreparable harm that such false allegations would cause to the plaintiff’s well-deserved reputation as a decent and caring human being, along with the inevitable harm to his family and the irreparable harm to his career and livelihood.” This is what would happen if she followed through on her threat to “publicly file” her fabricated lawsuit.

Roe’s lawyers, meanwhile, told CNN that Brooks tried to “silence” Roe in an “act of desperation.”

“We are confident that Brooks will be held accountable for his actions,” the lawyers said Douglas H. Wigdor, Jeanne M. Christensen And Hayley Baker said in her statement to the outlet. “We applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaint against Garth Brooks. “The complaint filed today shows that sexual predators exist not only in corporate America, in Hollywood, and in the rap and rock and roll industries, but also in the world of country music.”

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For her part, Yearwood has not addressed the Brooks scandal. A few days before Roe’s lawsuit made headlines, Yearwood posted an Instagram photo of the couple performing in Las Vegas late last month.

Last year, Brooks said Us weekly that he was often “dependent” on Yearwood.

“I feel so helpless because there’s nothing I couldn’t do without her,” Brooks said exclusively Us in August 2023, months before they opened their bar together in Nashville. “There’s nothing I can’t do with her and there’s nothing I can do without her. It’s a blessing and a curse at the same time that you feel so free and independent when she’s there, and you’re so dependent when she’s not there… I don’t think she thinks that way at all, but I know that it is like that.”

Before marrying Yearwood, the Grammy winner was married to her first wife Sandy Mahl between 1986 and 2001. Three years after their wedding, Brooks admittedly cheated on Mahl, with whom he has three daughters. They eventually reconciled before finally splitting up in 2000.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit rainn.org.