Of course, it's not a compliment in terms of the lyrics, but you could just view it as a song about someone collecting autographs and what they have to do to follow their dream. I could easily see someone actually being proud of being 'that guy'.
People misinterpret lyrics all the time (myself included), and reading this one as a tribute is less of a crime than, say, thinking of Born in the USA as some kind of tribute to the United States (when it's the exact opposite).