Josh Homme Apologizes Again for Kicking Concert Photographer

"I don't have any excuse or reason to justify what I did"

Music News Josh Homme
Josh Homme Apologizes Again for Kicking Concert Photographer

At the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show in Los Angeles Saturday, Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme sent photographer Chelsea Lauren to the hospital by kicking her camera into her face mid-concert. On Sunday afternoon, after Lauren went public, Homme issued a weak apology, claiming to have been “lost in performance.” Now, the musician has offered another mea culpa in the form of a pair of videos shared to the band’s Instagram account.

“I’d just like to apologize to Chelsea Lauren,” says Homme in the first video, going on to acknowledge that the kick was not, in fact, an accident: “I don’t have any excuse or reason to justify what I did. I was a total dick, and I’m truly sorry, and I hope you’re okay.”

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A post shared by QOTSA (@queensofthestoneage) on

Continuing in a second clip, Homme says, “I want to be a good man, but I think last night I definitely failed at that. And that means I failed my family and my friends, as well,” apologizing to his parents, wife, kids, brother and bandmates in addition to Lauren. “I’m gonna have to figure out some stuff, I think,” he continues. “Because rock ’n’ roll’s a wonderful thing. It’s supposed to save and help people, not mess ‘em up.” He also acknowledges to Lauren, “I understand you have to do whatever you have to do.” (The photographer has been encouraged to press charges.)

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A post shared by QOTSA (@queensofthestoneage) on

Lauren, a Shutterstock photographer, told Variety; that Homme’s kick was “obviously very intentional,” even appearing to capture an image of Homme smiling down at her before delivering it. “The next thing I know his foot connects with my camera and my camera connects with my face, really hard,” she recalled.

Lauren wrote on Instagram:

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

In addition to kicking Lauren, Homme behaved erratically throughout the show, cutting his own face with a knife and bleeding profusely (as pictured above), calling the audience “retards” and shouting “Fuck Muse!” in reference to the events’ headliners.

As Lauren wrote on Instagram, “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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