Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme kicked a female photographer during a concert on Saturday night and she feels the attack was “obviously very intentional.”
Chelsea Lauren — a photographer who works for an agency called Shutterstock — told Variety the incident, which took place during KROQ’s Acoustic Christmas, was completely unprovoked.
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“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 told 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 cause it hurt so badly.”
Lauren filmed two more acts before going to the hospital. She posted a video of the kick on Instagram (from the hospital) and captioned the video by writing, “Thanks to @joshhomme @queensofthestoneage I now get to spend my night in the ER. Seriously, WHO DOES THAT?!?”
Lauren told Variety she plans to press charges. Variety said a rep for the band could not immediately be reached for comment.
UPDATE #2: Homme posted an apology on Twitter:
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UPDATE #1: Lauren posted an update on her condition on Instagram, writing, “My neck is a sore, my eyebrow bruised and I’m a bit nauseous. The doctor released me early in the morning … 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.”
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