10 Times Fans Crossed the Line With Musicians: Phone Throwing, Stage Crashing & More

In the world of modern music, you have your fans. You have your Stans. And then, beyond even that, you have people who are pretty much just one misstep away from a restraining order.

Horror stories about stalkers, trespassers and aggressive admirers are sadly nothing new in the history of music. But in the past few years, oddball behavior from fans seems to have reached a completely new level of nope, with the boundaries between artist and listener blurring more than ever before.

For instance, in the span of just a few months in 2023, artists like Drake, P!nk, Bebe Rexha and Kelsea Ballerini were either hit with items thrown at them — one of them sustaining moderate injuries as a result — or were gifted items that were way, way too personal. And before that, performers like Taylor Swift, Adam Levine and Billie Eilish were unexpectedly grabbed, tackled or kissed (absolutely not, folks!) by unruly fans right in the middle of a concert.

There are plenty of theories as to why these incidents have increased in recent years, with some arguing that in the social media age, constant access and visibility has encouraged inappropriate behavior. It’s also been said that two years (give or take) of isolation in the COVID-19 pandemic made people forget how to act when face-to face with their faves.

But whatever the reason, there’s absolutely no excuse for fans to turn celebrities into targets for airborne objects, unauthorized physical contact or unplanned stage sharing. For a list of what not to do when in the same space as a musician, see 10 examples of times people definitely crossed the line with artists below.