Queens of the Stone Age at Aragon Ballroom
photo by James Richards IV

QOTSA's Josh Homme kicks photographer in the face at KROQ show

UPDATE: Josh Homme released a statement:

https://twitter.com/qotsa/status/939975357519687681

Queens of the Stone Age were four songs into their set at Inglewood, CA’s The Forum on Saturday (12/9), the first evening of a two-night KROQ concert, Almost Acoustic Christmas, when frontman Josh Homme kicked a photographer in the face, Variety reports. The photographer, Chelsea Lauren, who works for Shutterstock, posted video of the incident to her Instagram account, with the caption, “Thanks to @joshhomme I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT?!?”

Speaking to Variety, Chelsea called the attack unprovoked and “obviously very intentional.” She detailed it further:

I saw [Josh Homme] 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.

Variety says Chelsea went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for treatment later that night, and intends to file a police report.

Queens of the Stone Age frequently do not allow photographers to shoot in the center of the photo pit at their shows, instead restricting them to either side of the stage for three songs. However, Chelsea commented on Facebook that “there were no restrictions for photography for [Queens of the Stone Age].”

The rest of Queens of the Stone Age’s set, according to Variety, included Homme appearing to cut his forehead, leaving it bleeding, as well as calling the audience “retards,” encouraging them to boo him and take off their pants, and saying “fuck Muse.”

Morrissey, who was scheduled to perform on the second night of KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas on Sunday (12/10), cancelled due to illness. Earlier in the week he cancelled shows in Boston and Philadelphia; he did, however, manage to play NYC.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bcg3ffCjXBw/