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Queens of the Stone Age Frontman Josh Homme Allegedly Kicked a Female Photographer in the Head During Last Night’s Show

INGLEWOOD, CA - DECEMBER 09: Singer Josh Homme of the band Queens of the Stone Age performs onstage during KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas 2017 at The Forum on December 9, 2017 in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/WireImage)

Last night, Queens of the Stone Age performed at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas show in Inglewood, California. In a disturbing video of the performance, frontman Josh Homme violently kicks a female photographer in the head, as Variety reports. Chelsea Lauren, the Shutterstock photographer seen in the video, shared with Variety that “it was obviously very intentional.” She continued:

“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…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.”

Lauren said that she was hospitalized as a result of the injuries and that she plans to file a police report later today.

Even after the incident, Homme’s behavior was erratic and aggressive for the rest of the night. The singer allegedly brought out a knife, cutting his head open as blood dripped down his shirt. At one point, the vocalist yelled “fuck Muse” (who were headlining after the band’s set). Later in the night, Homme called the crowd “retards,” also encouraging everyone take their pants off, saying, “I want to give you all a night you’ll never remember.” According to sources at Variety, it was unclear whether Homme was under the influence of any drugs or alcohol. Watch video footage of the chaos below.

(UPDATE 8:45 p.m. ET): Josh Homme has shared a statement about the incident and an apology to Lauren. In the statement, he writes:

“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.”

Read the full statement below.