Queens of Stone Age Rocker Kicks Female Photog in Face

Chelsea Lauren describes 'intentional' incident
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 11, 2017 9:04 AM CST
Queens of Stone Age Rocker Kicks Female Photog in Face
Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age performs at the 2017 KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas at The Forum on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2017, in Inglewood, Calif.   (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP)

It's an incident so nasty a rock star's apology over it includes him saying sorry to his parents. While Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme was performing Saturday at radio station KROQ's Acoustic Christmas concert, he kicked Shutterstock photographer Chelsea Lauren in the face, "violently," per Variety. She says, "Josh was coming over and I was pretty excited ... 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 says she ended up at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and on Sunday wrote that she has a sore neck, bruised eyebrow, and nausea, and that "as of now, nobody from QOTSA has reached out to me."

Homme initially said in a statement Sunday that the incident happened without his knowing "while in a state of being lost in performance" and that "I would never intentionally cause harm to anyone." Lauren and Variety describe extreme behavior from Homme during the show: He cut his own forehead with a knife (bloody photo here), called the audience "retards" and asked them to boo him, instructed everyone to remove their pants, and shouted an obscenity about evening headliner Muse. In a follow-up video apology, Pitchfork reports Homme admitted he "was a total dick. I'm truly sorry, and I hope you're okay." He also apologized to "my bandmates, my mom and my dad, my wife, my brother, and my kids. ... I’m gonna have to figure out some stuff." As for news that Lauren planned to file a police report, "I understand you have to do whatever you have to do." (More Queens of the Stone Age stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X