Queens of the Stone Age Frontman Kicks Photographer in Face at Christmas

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme is facing a public outcry for kicking a photographer in the head during the band’s set at a Saturday night Christmas concert in Inglewood, California.

The victim of Homme’s attack was Chelsea Lauren, a Shutterstock photographer, who was down in front shooting the KROQ Acoustic Christmas show. “I saw him coming over and I was shooting away,” she told Variety. “The next thing I know his foot connects with my camera and my camera connects with my face, really hard. He looked straight at me, swung his leg back pretty hard and full-blown kicked me in the face… It was obviously very intentional.” Lauren, who went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment of her injuries, shared this video of the attack:

Thanks to Josh Homme @queensofthestoneage I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT?!? #joshhomme #queensofthestoneage #qotsa #qotsafamily #concertphotography #musicphotographer

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on Dec 9, 2017 at 11:38pm PST

The show’s other highlights included Homme cutting himself in the head with a knife and calling the audience “retards.” Happy holidays!

Homme later issued an apology, via the band’s Twitter account, in which he explained he was “in a state of being lost in performance,” and that he accidentally kicked the photographer while kicking over “various lighting and equipment on our stage,” which is totally what’s happening in the video, definitely. He has since issued a second, video apology, admitting, “I don’t have any excuse or reason to justify what I did. I was a total dick. I’m truly sorry, and I hope you’re okay.”

Lauren has indicated she will file a police report against Homme, who says in the new video, “I’m gonna have to figure out some stuff … I understand you have to do whatever you have to do.” Here’s that video:

pic.twitter.com/LUdxsTQE6P

— QOTSA (@qotsa) December 11, 2017

In a follow-up post on Instagram, Lauren shared her condition and thoughts on the matter:

Thank you everyone that has reached out with supportive messages. A small update, as I’m being flooded with questions: My neck is a sore, my eyebrow bruised and I’m a bit nauseous. The doctor released me early in the morning. Here are three images. Two of them as Josh looked at me, smiled and then kicked me. The other one is later after he cut his own face with a knife. I was in the pit in tears – and he just stared at me smiling. Assault in any form is not okay, no matter what the reasoning. Alcohol and drugs are no excuse. I was where I was allowed to be, I was not breaking any rules. I was simply trying to do my job. I hold nobody accountable for this but Josh himself. KROQ has nothing to do with this and I will always support them. The irony is someone had thrown an ice cube on to the very slick catwalk before the QOTSA set. I was afraid that one of the band members might slip and hurt themselves so, when the lights went dark, I used my arm to wipe down the runway so nobody would hurt themselves. Thank you to @variety for their immediate concern and care with this matter. As of now, nobody from QOTSA has reached out to me. #queensofthestoneage #QOTSA #JoshHomme

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on Dec 10, 2017 at 11:22am PST

Queens of the Stone Age