Florida punk-rock icon Laura Jane Grace: What to know about the Against Me! singer

She’s a rock ‘n’ roll icon with deep Florida connections. And now she’s been ranked one of the Top 50 Greatest Rock Lead Singers of All Time.

Here’s everything you need to know about Laura Jane Grace, lead singer of punk-rockers Against Me! and author of the hit 2016 memoir “Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout”:

She’s one of the 50 greatest rock singers of all time

That’s according to Billboard magazine, which ranked her No. 31 in its August 2023 list of the Top 50 Greatest Rock Lead Singers of All Time.

That’s higher than Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead (No. 44), Paul McCartney of The Beatles (No. 39),  Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship (No. 35) and Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath (No. 32).

Billboard’s senior director of music, Jason Lipshutz, explained why Laura Jane Grace deserved her ranking.

“Becoming one of the first famous punk rock musicians to come out as transgender in 2012 required an astonishing level of courage from Laura Jane Grace — but the leader of Against Me! had always exhibited a high degree of fearlessness throughout her career, whether leading countless mosh pits or prodding at her identity in her songwriting,” Lipshutz wrote in Grace’s entry.

“The band’s first album after Grace came out, 2014’s Transgender Dysphoria Blues, stands as an indispensable piece of rock history, and demonstrated that Grace wouldn’t be losing an ounce of her snarl while speaking her truth.”

Her Florida roots run deep

Grace was born in Fort Benning, Georgia (now Fort Moore), and moved to Naples when she was about 10. She famously hated Naples, though, and left for Gainesville as soon as she turned 18 ― right after her first tour with Against Me!

Grace and her first bands used to practice at Naples’ Cambier Park bandshell, and her first-ever show happened at Naples’ First Presbyterian Church.

“They’d have a talent show, so those were our first three live performances,” she told The News-Press/Naples Daily News in 2020. “My first bands were, like, youth group bands. Church youth group bands.”

She played other local shows after that, though.

“I would literally just busk on Fifth Avenue,” she said. “And there was also a record store called Offbeat Music that was in the Patio de Leon in downtown Fort Myers for a while, and we’d play shows there. And there was a record store called Higher Learning.”

Her career took off after leaving Naples

After moving to Gainesville ― the town most associated with Against Me! ― Grace’s career quickly grew.

She's recorded hit albums both with Against Me! and as a solo act. She's toured the world. And she's written an acclaimed memoir.

And, perhaps most famously, she came out as transgender in a 2012 Rolling Stone magazine profile — becoming a trans icon in the process.

Read our 2020 profile of Laura Jane Grace: Punk-rock star talks new album, Naples and being a transgender icon

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The 2014 Against Me! album “Transgender Dysphoria Blues” directly addressed her trans identity and became one of the band’s most critically acclaimed albums. It ended up on many critics’ Best of 2014 lists.

Against Me! has been on an indefinite hiatus since about 2020, according to Grace. Since then, she’s release two solo musical projects: The 2020 album “Stay Alive”” and the 2021 EP “At War With The Silverfish.”

How she feels about being a transgender icon

Google “transgender rock star,” and Grace always turns up ― right at the top.

When asked how she feels about being a trans icon, though, she responds with humor and a hint of sarcasm.

“Well, I’ll be honest with you, I don’t spend a lot of time Googling myself,” she said in 2020 and laughed. “So I don’t really feel about it.

“It’s a strange question. Like, I don’t have a feeling about it because I don’t think about it, you know? … If someone refers to me as something like that, that’s them. You should ask them. But it doesn’t have anything to do with me.

“But as far as being visible, I’m fine being visible, you know.”

Joan Jett loves Grace's 2016 memoir, 'Tranny'

Grace has been writing in journals since she was 8 years old. So she had plenty of material when she decided to write her first book ― something she’d always wanted to do.

The result, “Tranny,” follows Grace’s life and career, including her battles with addiction and her growing identity as a transgender woman.

Billboard later ranked the book at No. 42 on its 2016 list of the 100 Greatest Music Books of All Time. And no less a rock legend than Joan Jett provided the write-up.

“Laura Jane Grace shows great bravery diving into every detail of a story seldom told, with the advantage of having kept journals documenting everything she went through, from childhood to the beginnings of her band.” Jett wrote. “Capturing the pain and struggle, self-doubt and lack of support she experienced, Grace provides a valuable starting point for a conversation to broaden the understanding of, and empathy for, trans people.”

Grace said she wanted to communicate her perspective and create more understanding of herself and the transgender community ― something she says she tries to do in her songwriting, too.

“You’re trying to relate your experience so you don’t feel as alone in the world,” she said in 2020. “And you’re hoping that the universe sends things back from that, from putting yourself out there.

“So, yeah, especially as a trans person, where so much of your existence is being fearful of how people are going to treat you, whether that’s with physical violence or, I don’t know, cruelty. You’re trying to relate your experience.”

Learn more about Laura Jane Grace and her music at laurajanegrace.com. You can also follow her on Facebook (facebook.com/laurajane.grace.7) and X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram (@LauraJaneGrace).

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. For news tips or other entertainment-related matters, call him at 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at crunnells@gannett.com.

You can also connect with him on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida's Laura Jane Grace: All about Billboard's No. 31 Greatest Rock Singer