UPDATE: QOTSA’s Josh Homme Issues Statement After Kicking Photographer
ORIGINAL STORY: Footage has emerged of Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme kicking a photographer in the face at a show in Los Angeles over the weekend.
The incident occurred during the band’s set at the KROQ Acoustic Christmas concert on Saturday, when Shutterstock photographer Chelsea Lauren was hit by Homme.
Footage of the kick, which you can see below, shows Homme walking past Lauren before backtracking and attempting to kick away her camera. Lauren says the kick was “obviously very intentional”.
“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,” she told Variety.
“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.”
After taking photos of Thirty Seconds To Mars and Muse’s performances later that night, Lauren was treated in hospital. She said she planned to file a police report about the incident.
“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.”
Homme is yet to publicly comment on the incident. UPDATE: QOTSA’s Josh Homme Issues Statement After Kicking Photographer
Queens Of The Stone Age toured Australia earlier this year around Splendour In The Grass.
