Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme Kicked A Female Photographer In The Face At KROQ Christmas Show
Josh Homme isn’t all stuffed animals and bedtime stories. The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman has had some aggressive run-ins with fans before, but while performing at KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas last night, he actually kicked a photographer in the face.
Chelsea Lauren, who shoots photos for Shutterstock, claims the incident was intentional and unprovoked. “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. I saw him coming over and I was shooting away,” she tells 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.” Later that night she sought treatment at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and she says she plans to file a police report. “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 adds. “That’s not right.”
Homme reportedly continued to exhibit erratic behavior throughout the show. At one point, he took a out a knife and deliberately cut his own forehead. (Blood can be seen dripping down his face in the photo above.) He also called the audience “retards,” encouraged the crowd to boo him, told everyone to take their pants off, and insulted the show’s headliners: “Fuck Muse!”
UPDATE: Josh Homme has responded, apologizing to Lauren and claiming that it was an accident that occurred “in a state of being lost in performance.”
— QOTSA (@qotsa) December 10, 2017
UPDATE 2: Perhaps realizing that his apology sucked, Homme has now shared a video of himself apologizing a second time. In the first of two videos on the Queens Of The Stone Age Instagram, a contrite-looking Homme says, “I’d just like to apologize to Chelsea Lauren. I don’t have any excuse or reason to justify what I did. I was a total dick.”
In the second of those two videos, Homme says, “I want to be a good man, but I think last night I definitely failed that that. And that means I failed my family and my friends, as well… I’m gonna have to figure out some stuff, I think. Because rock ’n’ roll’s a wonderful thing. It’s supposed to save and help people and not mess them up.” After extending his apology to his bandmates and to the members of him family, Homme tells Lauren, “I understand that you have to do whatever you have to do.”
On an Instagram post from Lauren, Eddie Vedder’s wife Jill commented, writing, “I’m so very sorry this happened to you … this guy is a piece of shit .. never liked him… I’m horrified .. and truly disgusted …” (You can see a screenshot of her comment here.) Meanwhile, the celebrity chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain, a friend of Homme, tweeted this:
Waking up in Bhutan to the Josh Homme @QOTSA shit and still in the WTF!!!??!! Phase. Senseless. And a weak ass apology.
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) December 11, 2017
I’m not going to deny that Josh Homme @qotsa is a friend any more than I’m going to deny that what he did was reckless, stupid and harmful
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) December 11, 2017
It was reckless, stupid, and it hurt someone. But this is a good start at a way forward @qotsa https://t.co/bGMeCaLN5X
— Anthony Bourdain (@Bourdain) December 11, 2017