Photographer Hospitalised After Getting Kicked By Josh Homme At QOTSA Gig

Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has issued an apology to a photographer who he injured after kicking a camera out of her hands during a gig in LA.

As Variety reports, Chelsea Lauren posted video footage on her Instagram of the incident at KROQ’s Almost Acoustic Christmas 2017 event on Saturday night, which resulted in her spending the night in hospital.

UPDATE: "I Was A Total Dick": Josh Homme Makes Further Apology After Kicking Photographer

"I saw him coming over and I was shooting away," Lauren 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."

In a statement posted online, Lauren confirmed she was released from hospital earlier today. 

"I was in the pit in tears - and he just stared at me smiling," Lauren wrote.

"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."

 

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

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Homme reportedly behaved in an erratic manner during the show, at one time calling the sold-out audience "retards" and deliberately cutting his own forehead with a knife.

Lauren has said she intends to file a police report.

Homme issued a statement earlier today, saying he "did not mean" for Lauren to get injured.

"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," the statement reads.

See the full post below.

 

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