Noah Kahan Calls Out 'Scummy' Autograph Scalpers After Chappell Roan Incident

Chappell Roan filmed herself being circled by a group of people while trying to get to a restaurant during Paris Fashion Week, and the clip reignited one of the most persistent conversations in modern pop: where exactly is the line between fandom and harassment?

In the selfie-mode video, Roan showed people trailing her after she stepped out of her car, refusing to give her space despite repeated requests. "I'm just trying to go to dinner, and I've asked these people several times to get away from me," she told NME.

Enter Noah Kahan, who wasn't buying the "just a fan" act from the people crowding her. "Those dudes saying, 'I'm a huge fan,' following her around are scalpers and are as bad as the paparazzi. Fuck 'em all," Kahan said, as reported by NME. It's a blunt take, but it puts a spotlight on something that doesn't get talked about enough: the professional autograph economy. These aren't superfans hoping for a moment with their favorite artist. They're people running a resale hustle, treating celebrities like walking ATMs.

Autograph scalping is a well-known nuisance in sports and entertainment, but it often flies under the radar in music. Scalpers pose as devoted fans, track artists' movements, and aggressively pursue signatures they can flip online for serious money. The dynamic is especially uncomfortable for artists like Roan, who've been vocal about setting boundaries as their fame accelerates.

“"Those dudes saying, 'I'm a huge fan,' following her around are scalpers and are as bad as the paparazzi.”

Not everyone was sympathetic. Boy George weighed in by telling Roan to "own your fame" — a response that neatly captures the generational split on this issue. There's a certain old-guard attitude that public attention is simply the price of admission for pop stardom, and that pushing back against it reads as ungrateful. But for a growing number of younger artists and their fans, that framing feels outdated. Being famous shouldn't mean surrendering your right to eat dinner in peace.

Roan has been consistent on this front since her meteoric rise, repeatedly drawing lines around what she considers acceptable fan behavior. The Paris incident wasn't an outlier — it was the latest data point in an ongoing argument about what fans, media, and profiteers are actually entitled to.

With festival season ahead and Roan's visibility only growing, expect this conversation to keep evolving. The question isn't whether more moments like this will happen — it's whether the industry will start taking the autograph scalper problem seriously before it gets worse.