LOS ANGELES — Garth Brooks returned to the stage Thursday after denying rape and sexual misconduct allegations lobbed at him in a civil lawsuit brought by a former employee.

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

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

On Thursday, the "Friends in Low Places" hitmaker vehemently denied allegations made by a former employee, who was identified in court documents as "Jane Roe" — a hair and makeup stylist who worked with Brooks from 2017 to about 2020, and 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 appalling sexual conduct" and harassment while she worked for him, according to the complaint, which 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 had dared to speak about the harm he forced on her as an opportunity to inflict even more harm and pain" by filing a preemptive complaint in Mississippi court to stall her California lawsuit.

"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," the complaint said. "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. Yet, this is precisely what Brooks is trying to do in the Abusive Mississippi Action."

The woman's lawsuit lists assault, battery, sexual battery and gender violence among the complaints. She is seeking a jury trial as well as punitive and exemplary damages for her "mental and physical pain and suffering."

Brooks, 62, responded Thursday to the filing by denying the claims and accused the woman of extortion.

"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," Brooks said in a statement to The Times.

"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," he said.

The country star said last month he 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 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," he said.

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