Lately I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos of Robben Ford discussing all things guitar. I saw and heard Robben live a lot when he moved to San Jose (during my senior year in high school I had been in a band with a bassist who was in Robben’s band for awhile), as did all the other musicians in town. I then followed his career when he moved down to L.A., where he worked first with Joni Mitchell. He went on to play with a lot of greats, including Miles Davis (who gave Robben his blessings when he tendered his resignation from Miles’ band, understanding Robben had to forge his own solo career), George Harrison, many others.
Anyway, Robben freely acknowledges that he is self taught, never took any lessons, and doesn’t read music. But if you watch his videos you will soon learn that he has a deep knowledge of music theory, which is more important than being able to read. That is, unless you intend getting into doing a lot of session work, in which reading is pretty much mandatory.