2017 has heralded a paradigm shift in the music industry, regarding the expectations we hold of those in positions of power. Josh Homme, who isn’t afraid of igniting a certain level of rockstar induced trouble, has now added himself to the ever-growing list of men who fail to assess the consequences of their behaviour before acting, kicking an innocent female photographer in the face at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas over the weekend.
The photographer has taken to Instagram to detail how the Queens Of The Stone Age frontman ‘intentionally’ kicked her in an unprovoked attack, visible in the highly disturbing video below which shows Homme go out of his way to partake in the boneheaded attack.
“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.” the photographer told Variety.
She’s yet to press charges, however, the photographer has said that she feels as though Homme will fail to face consequences of his actions because he’s a musician. The caption of a separate Instagram post further highlights the photographer’s disgust at the attack, calling out that she was ‘simply trying to do her (my) job’ and reinstating that ‘assault in any form is not okay’.
The Shutterstock photographer was treated at Cedars-Sinai medical centre later that evening.
Homme also used the show as an opportunity to take out a knife and cut his own forehead whilst encouraging the crowd he called “retards” to boo him. He also encouraged punters to ‘take their pants off’ and repeatedly yelled “Fuck Muse” (the show’s headliners) throughout his set.