The Garth Brooks news is a big disappointment

For supporters of Garth Brooks, today is a difficult one.

Following word leaked Thursday night that the 62-year-old country music household icon has been accused of sexual assault and battery by a former hair and makeup artist, his supporters turned to social media to voice their dismay.

One X user said: “I really do not have the mental bandwidth to handle the Garth Brooks sexual assault claim. Now I am in grief; my pet, my mother, and my god all seem to have perished. I can’t. I simply cannot.”

The uncomfortable warning comes from the pained responses: be careful who you elevate, especially celebrities. Famous people are humans too, after all, and behind closed doors you really have no idea what they are like.

Why Garth Brooks, Dave Grohl news hurts.

Not only are Brooks’ supporters having to reconsider their connection to his songs and him as an artist.

Fans of Dave Grohl, the frontman of Foo Fighters, who is often seen as a welcoming parent figure in rock music culture, also received a cold splash of water to the face upon learning he conceived a kid outside of his 21-year marriage to Jordyn Blum.
Readers about celebrity scandals draw on popular culture observations. For Grohl and Brooks, however, given their previously perfect public images, it’s particularly difficult for supporters. By singing duets together and in recent months, Brooks and his wife, country music icon Trisha Yearwood, have melted listeners’ hearts. The “Friends in Low Places” singer has gushed about his “sweet” wife.

But according to the lawsuit against Brooks, 2019 saw him “seize what he viewed as a chance to subject a female employee to a side of Brooks that he hides from the public. This side of Brooks feels he is entitled to sexual fulfillment when he wants it and that it is fair game to use a female coworker to obtain it.”
The responses allude to a trend among music listeners: many are just bored with the letdown.

“I try very hard not to care too much about celebrities and all that, cause I don’t know these people,” one X user noted. “But I can’t lie; this Garth Brooks news pains. His songs have great meaning for me.
Previously advised USA TODAY by experts is the need of separating someone’s art from their personality. It doesn’t follow that artist is a kind person just because you enjoy someone’s song.

This is also true of everyone working in any field.

Still, let me say that disappointment is certain. Feeling your emotions at news like this is also acceptable.

“When figures show themselves to be something other than what you imagine, disappointment is expected,” Redmond earlier told USA TODAY. “And it can happen often since we are constantly surrounded with fresh media meant to hook us and cause us to fall for someone.”

What’s Garth Brooks suspected of?

Referenced in the lawsuit as Jane Roe, Brooks has been accused of rape and sexual abuse by a celebrity hair and cosmetics artist.

Filed on Thursday in a California state court, the complaint—which USA TODAY acquired—claims the alleged assaults happened in 2019. The accusations include explicit accounts of sexual assault, including a rape during a business trip to Los Angeles that left her “physically” and “emotionally” damaged.

Brooks released a statement to People magazine later Thursday evening claiming innocence.

“For the past two months, I have been harassed to no limit with threats, lies, and horrible tales of what my future would be if I did not sign a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun pointed in my face.

From the accuser’s legal team’s statement, they “applaud our client’s courage in moving forward with her complaints against Garth Brooks.”

“The complaint filed today shows 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 statement USA TODAY acquired said. “We urge people who might have been victims to get in touch with us since no survivor should suffer in silence.”