Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme apparently kicked Shutterstock photographer Chelsea Lauren in the face while she was photographing the band at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas yesterday (December 9). In an interview with Variety, she said that the “incident was unprovoked” and that it was “obviously very intentional.”
Lauren also added the following about Homme, who was actually even smiling before he assaulted her:
“Josh was coming over and I was pretty excited, I’ve never actually photographed Queens Of The Stone Age before, I was really looking forward to it. I saw him coming over and I was shooting away. 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. He continued performing, I was startled, I kind of stopped looking at him, I just got down and was holding my face because it hurt so badly.”
Lauren was able to return to shoot Thirty Seconds To Mars and Muse before going to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment. She plans to file a police report today (December 10), saying she feels like it is necessary because it isn’t right for Homme to be able to “kick people in the face and not get in trouble because he’s a musician.”
Many have speculated that Homme was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, because he was doing other odd things as well, such as allegedly cutting his head with a knife, calling the audience “retards” and telling them to boo him and take their pants off. He went on to tell the crowd that he wanted to give them “a night [they will] never remember,” and then proceeded to insult the evening’s headliners Muse by yelling “Fuck Muse!.”
Homme has since issued a written and video apology to Lauren:
“Last night, while in a state of being lost in performance, I kicked over various lighting and equipment on our stage. Today it was brought to my attention that this included a camera held by photographer Chelsea Lauren. I did not mean for that to happen and I am very sorry. I would never intentionally cause harm to anyone working at or attending one of our shows and I hope Chelsea will accept my sincere apology.”
https://twitter.com/qotsa/status/940104860061507584
Metal Anarchy 
3 responses to “Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme Kicks Female Photographer In The Face At KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas, Exhibits Other Odd Behavior”
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