Music

Josh Homme Under Fire For Kicking A Female Photographer In The Face

He's expected to face charges.

by Jules LeFevre  11 December 2017
Josh Homme

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Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme is expected to face charges after kicking a female photographer in the head at a show in Los Angeles over the weekend.

Photographer Chelsea Lauren was shooting the band from the photo pit when Homme walked across the front of the stage and kicked her camera, which then collided with her face.

“I saw him coming over and I was shooting away,” Lauren 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. 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.”

Footage of the incident was caught on camera by a fan in the crowd, which Lauren then shared:

Lauren went to a nearby hospital for treatment, and told Variety that she will mostly likely press charges against Homme. “I feel like if I don’t do anything, he gets to kick people in the face and not get in trouble because he’s a musician,” she said. “That’s not right.”

She talked on the incident further on Instagram, sharing three photos of Homme — two of which were taken just before the alleged assault and show the frontman looking directly at her and smiling.

“Assault in any form is not okay, no matter what the reasoning,” she added. “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… as of now, nobody from QOTSA has reached out to me.”

Homme has since responded via QOTSA’s Twitter, writing that he was in a “state of being lost in performance” when he kicked Lauren’s camera.

“Last night, while in a state of being lost in performance, I kicked over various lighting and equipment on stage,” he wrote. “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 hope Chelsea will accept my sincere apology.”