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Garth Brooks almost broke into tears during his Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance.
Though the 62-year-old country singer didn't directly address the sexual assault lawsuit against him, he did get particularly emotional while speaking about the holidays with his family on the Monday, November 25 episode.
When Kimmel asked him about his feelings on Christmas ornaments, Brooks began, "For me, ornaments are cool, but they gotta have a meaning to them." As he began describing his personal holiday traditions — with wife Trisha Yearwood and his daughters Taylor, 32, August, 30, and Allie, 28, who he shares with ex-wife Sandy Mahl — Brooks could be seen blinking back tears.
"We always decorate with the three girls. We've done that since we've known each other. So the three girls have three bells, and that's the first thing that has to go on the tree," he explained, before noting, "I'm gonna start crying, sorry."
He pushed through, continuing, "That's the first thing that goes on the tree, and that means it's Christmas and that means it's time to love one another and drop all this silly s**t and just have some fun together."
The "Only Country Music" singer also praised Yearwood, 60, for hosting a "Misfit Thanksgiving" for "20 or 25" people who work in the industry and are not able to be home with their families for the holiday. He said that though the Christmas tree usually goes up in their house the day after Thanksgiving, his wife thought they needed Christmas a little sooner this year.
Seeing as Brooks is finishing up the final dates of his Las Vegas residency, which go right up to December 22, just days before Christmas, "Ms. Yearwood said, 'We're starting Christmas now.' That was about three weeks ago," he told Kimmel.
The appearance comes just weeks after Brooks' lawyers motioned to move his case from the Superior Court in California to federal court. In October, a woman referred to only as "Jane Roe" filed a lawsuit against the "Friends in Low Places" singer, accusing him of sexual assault and battery that allegedly took place in 2019.
The plaintiff alleges she started as a hairstylist and makeup artist in 1999 for Brooks' wife, who is also a country singer, before being hired by Brooks in 2017. The lawsuit accuses Brooks of raping her in a Los Angeles hotel room for a work trip, and then subsequently coercing her to touch him naked while at his house for work. She also claims he made "repeated" remarks about his desire to have a threesome with her and Yearwood.
Jane Roe has also released text messages allegedly between herself and Brooks, who she claims sometimes "used more than one cell phone, and sometimes would use different 'names' and email addresses to communicate with Ms. Roe," per court documents obtained by Us Weekly.
Brooks denied all accusations in a statement to Newsweek back in October. "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," his statement read.
"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," the statement continued.
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