Brody Dalle testifies that Josh Homme head-butted her so hard she ‘saw stars’

Brody Dalle has testified that her ex-husband Josh Homme head-butted her so hard she “saw stars”, and told her that he had fantasised about murdering her, on the first day of a trial dealing with conflicting domestic violence restraining orders that each party filed against the other, Rolling Stone reports.

Dalle told a Los Angeles courtroom that the Queens of the Stone Age frontman attacked her in October 2019 during a discussion about their respective musical output.

“We were talking about touring, and he was thinking about putting a tour right when my record was coming out. I hadn’t released a record in a very, very long time, and I said, ‘I would never do that to you.’ I said, ‘It’s weird and competitive.’

“And he said, ‘Competitive? You think you’re my competition? I want to fucking strangle you right now.’ And he came up to the bed and he got on top of me and screamed, ‘You’re a fucking insane bitch.’ And I had my arms up in a foetal position, and he grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of bed on to the floor. I was terrified.”

She claimed that the following month, Homme said he had fantasised about killing her and head-butted her in the right temple so hard that she blacked out. “My head went back, and I was on the ground. He bent down and he said, ‘You fucking faker.’”

She said he told her: “‘I’ve been thinking about wanting to kill you, and if I killed you, no one would know, because you’d be dead.’ I was in shock. I couldn’t believe that he would say something like that,” said Dalle, who claimed he was intoxicated during the alleged assault.

After the alleged head-butting, Dalle filed for a restraining order and initiated divorce proceedings. The couple married in December 2005. They have a 16-year-old daughter and sons aged 10 and five.

She told the court that after Homme attended rehab, they successfully co-parented until Homme allegedly turned violent during a custodial exchange of their sons last June, punching her car window, refusing to let her close her door and verbally assaulting her. Dalle said Homme was upset because their daughter refused to go to his house.

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In August 2021 Homme filed a restraining order against Dalle, claiming that she “angrily slammed her car door into my body, causing significant bruising”. He said she had also punched him in the face on “several occasions”, thrown objects “such as her handbag and an iron” at him, and called him “derogatory names”.

The following month, Dalle unsuccessfully filed for a restraining order against Homme on behalf of her and their children. It accused him of grabbing, flicking and hitting the children, as well as drink driving and making threats against Dalle’s partner. Homme denied the charges.

Their daughter, however, was granted her own temporary restraining order against Homme, ordering him to remain 100 yards away from her and stipulating no contact. Homme was granted 15-minute FaceTime calls with his sons every other day.

This week’s hearing is the latest development in a complex case. In November, Homme successfully sought criminal contempt charges against Dalle for violating a court order when she refused to hand over their five-year-old son on 3 September 2021. She was sentenced to 60 hours of community service and a $1,000 (£742) fine.

That judge found that the couple’s older children had resisted seeing Homme of their own accord owing to concerns about his sobriety and alleged threats against Dalle and her partner Gunner Foxx.

Homme filed for a civil harassment restraining order against Foxx on 12 November, claiming that he was intentionally interfering in his relationships and custodial time with his sons. In January, Foxx was granted an emergency stay-away order by a judge after Homme allegedly threatened and injured him during a confrontation at a shopping mall on Christmas eve, Rolling Stone reports.

In November, Homme told the judge he was “willing to take responsibility for things that I do” but wanted “justice” and “one set of rules for both sides”.

• In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.