Queens of the Stone Age Frontman Sends Photographer to Emergency Room

Thanks to @joshhomme @queensofthestoneage I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme appears to violently kick a female photographer during a Saturday show. The photographer was hospitalized because of the incident.

The group was performing at the KROQ Acoustic Christmas show. Shutterstock photographer Chelsea Lauren posted video of the incident. She told Variety that it was unprovoked and intentional.

"It was obviously very intentional," Lauren, who was one of three photographers near the stage, said.

Lauren's video appears to show the 44-year-old Homme kick her while he was playing his guitar. He kicks Lauren's camera and the side of her head, knocking her to the ground.

Lauren told Variety she was excited to photograph the group. As she saw him coming her way, she took her camera out to take pictures.

"The next thing I know his foot connects with my camera and my camera connects with my face, really hard," Lauren said. "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."

A rep from KROQ told Lauren in the press room that they received a text from someone in the audience who wanted to know if Homme kicked a photographer in the face.

Lauren went back to take pictures of Thirty Seconds to Mars and Muse during their shows, but she spent the night at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and 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," the photographer told Variety. "That's not right."

Lauren also posted a gallery of images she took before Homme kicked her.

"Assault in any form is not okay, no matter what the reasoning. Alcohol and drugs are no excuse," Lauren wrote on Instagram. "I was where I was allowed to be, I was not breaking any rules. I was simply trying to do my job."

Thank you everyone that has reached out with supportive messages. A small update, as I'm being flooded with questions: My neck is a sore, my eyebrow bruised and I'm a bit nauseous. The doctor released me early in the morning. Here are three images. Two of them as Josh looked at me, smiled and then kicked me. The other one is later after he cut his own face with a knife. I was in the pit in tears - and he just stared at me smiling. Assault in any form is not okay, no matter what the reasoning. 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. I hold nobody accountable for this but Josh himself. KROQ has nothing to do with this and I will always support them. The irony is someone had thrown an ice cube on to the very slick catwalk before the QOTSA set. I was afraid that one of the band members might slip and hurt themselves so, when the lights went dark, I used my arm to wipe down the runway so nobody would hurt themselves. Thank you to @variety for their immediate concern and care with this matter. As of now, nobody from QOTSA has reached out to me. #queensofthestoneage #QOTSA #JoshHomme

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on

Lauren also wrote that Homme took out a knife and cut his own forehead, causing it to bleed during the show. Variety reports that he also insulted the audience and Muse, yelling "f--- Muse!"

"My neck is a sore, my eyebrow bruised and I'm a bit nauseous," Lauren wrote. "The doctor released me early in the morning."

Photo credit: Facebook / Queens of the Stone Age

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