Josh Homme Apologizes for Kicking Female Photographer in the Face at KROQ Concert

Music

The frontman of Queen of the Stone Age says in a statement that he will never intentionally cause harm to anyone working at or attending one of the band's shows.

December 11, 2017

AceShowbiz -

Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme was having so much fun performing onstage that he kicked a female photographer in the face. The band was hitting the stage at KROQ's annual holiday concert in Los Angeles on November 9 when the incident happened.

The female photographer, whose name is Chelsea Lauren, posted on Instagram a video of the incident. The clip saw Homme walking past her, turning back and then kicking in the direction of her camera and head. She appeared to fall down because of that. She captioned it, "Thanks to @joshhomme @queenofthestoneage I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT?!"

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

Sebuah kiriman dibagikan oleh Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) pada Des 9, 2017 pada 11:38 PST

Speaking to Variety, she recalled the incident and said that it was "obviously intentional." She stated, "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." Lauren added that she planned to file a police report after the incident.

Following the interview, Lauren later took to Instagram again to stress that Homme was solely responsible for the incident and detailed that "my neck is a sore, my eyebrow bruised and I'm a bit nauseous. The doctor released me early in the morning." She continued, "I hold nobody accountable for this but Josh himself. KROQ has nothing to do with this."

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

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Sebuah kiriman dibagikan oleh Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) pada Des 10, 2017 pada 11:22 PST

On Sunday, December 10, Homme issued a statement on social media. "Last night, while in a state of being lost in performance, I kicked over various lighting and equipment on our stage," he stated. "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," he continued, adding that the incident was not intentional. "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."