![Video Shows QOTSA’s Josh Homme Kicking Camera Into Photographer’s Face](http://townsquare.media/site/443/files/2017/12/JOsh.jpg?w=980&q=75)
Video Shows QOTSA’s Josh Homme Kicking Camera Into Photographer’s Face
Video from Queens of the Stone Age's performance at the KROQ Acoustic Christmas concert last night shows frontman Josh Homme kicking a photographer's camera into her face. The singer has since issued a statement insisting it was an accident.
Chelsea Lauren, the photographer involved in the incident, says Homme was smiling at her just before the strike. "It was obviously very intentional," she told Variety, who also have her photos from just before the incident. “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.”
In a statement posted to the band's Facebook page early Sunday evening, Homme denied any intentional wrong-doing. "Last night, while in a state of being lost in performance, I kicked over various lighting and equipment on our stage. Today it was brought to my attention that this included a camera held by photographer Chelsea Lauren. I did not mean for that to happen and I am very sorry. 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."
Shortly after the camera kick, Homme reportedly pulled a knife out of his pocket and cut himself on the forehead, with the wound remaining bleeding for the rest of the night. At various points during the show, he also apparently referred to the crowd as "retards," asked them to both boo him and collectively remove their pants, and hurled a "f--- Muse" insult at the evening's headliners.
After returning to the photo pit to shoot sets by Thirty Seconds To Mars and Muse, Lauren went to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for medical treatment, and says she will be filing a police report today. “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. That’s not right.”
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