no worries dude. at this point we're venturing off into personal philosophies on playing music though.
as far as teaching yourself to play the guitar, tabs are where it's at. period.
everything else at that point in the game is superfluous.
you just happen to be well ahead of the curve in relation to your peers. don't swear it, they'll either have lighting bolt moments later on in life or stick to being bedroom shredders. there's nothing wrong with being in a cover band either, successfully imitating professional level entertainers DOES require a certain kind of skill, especially if you cover a wide range of material and styles. not everyone wants to be the next big thing, some people just like playing along and leave the creativity to other people.
oh yeah, my stack of guitar magazines went taller than my knee (i'm 6'3" at that)
