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Josh Homme apologises after photographer said he kicked her

"I was simply trying to do my job. I hold nobody accountable for this but Josh himself."

Johnny Lieu

on December 10, 2017

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

UPDATE: Dec. 11, 2017, 5:31 p.m. AEDT Updated with an additional statement from Josh Homme.

Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme has apologised after a photographer claimed she was kicked in the head by the musician.

Chelsea Lauren, who was working at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas on Saturday in Los Angeles for Shutterstock, told Variety she was intentionally kicked in the head by the musician.

"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," she said.

"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."

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Footage of the incident was posted on Lauren's Instagram page.

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Lauren revealed in another Instagram post on Sunday afternoon that she spent the night in hospital, where she suffered a sore neck and a bruised eyebrow.

"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," she wrote.

Variety also reported Homme insulted the audience and the show's headline act, Muse.

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

A post shared by Chelsea Lauren (@chelsealaurenla) on Dec 10, 2017 at 11:22am PST

Homme released a statement via the band's Twitter on Sunday, claiming that was all an accident. Lauren told Variety she planned to file a police report.

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Later on Sunday, Homme issued another statement via video. He again apologised to Lauren, and said he had no excuse or reason to justify his actions.

"I was a total dick. And I'm truly sorry, and I hope you're okay. I've made a lot of mistakes and yesterday was definitely one of them," he said. "I want to be a good man, and yesterday I definitely failed at that."