L-A Radio: Photographer Kicked in Face During KROQ Holiday Concert

Queens of the Stone Age Frontman Josh Homme can be seen violantely kicking a female
photographer in the face in a disturbing video from the KROQ 106.7 FM Christmas first night on Saturday.

The incident happened during the band’s performance at the L.A. radio station’s 28th annual holiday concert.

Chelsea Lauren, a photographer for Shutterstock, which has a licensing partership with Variety owner Penske Media, said the incident was entirely unprovoked and that Homme was even smiling before he struck her.

“It was obviously very intentional,” she told Variety.

Lauren was on one side of the stage while three other photographers were together on the other side of the stage. In the video, Homme can be seen walking past Lauren, then backtracking a step to kick away her camera.

“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 said. “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 cause it hurt so badly.”

Thanks to @joshhomme @queensofthestoneage I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT?!? #joshhomme #queensofthestoneage #qotsa #qotsafamily #concertphotography #musicphotographer

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on Dec 9, 2017 at 11:38pm PST

A visibly distraught Lauren returned to the press room with tears welling up in her eyes. When several people asked her what happened she said, disbelief still in her voice, “Josh kicked me in the face. Who does that?”

It’s unknown if the 44 year-old Homme was under the influence of alcohol or drugs on Saturday. At one point, he called the sold-out audience “retards” before insulting the night’s headlining act, Muse. “F— Muse!” he exclaimed. He also encouraged the crowd to boo him, told everyone to take their pants off, saying, I want to give you all a night you’ll never remember.”

The LATimes reports Homme released a statement Sunday afternoon to press and on the band’s social-media accounts:

“I did not mean for that to happen and I am very sorry,” the statement partly read. “I would never intentionally cause harm to anyone working at or attending one of our shows and I hope Chelsea will accept my sincere apology.”