Here is a clip featuring Sir Paul McCartney about reading music. There is an article I posted on this site called "A Teacher Speaks Out" which poses the question "How Important is note reading?"

The article does say that I do NOT advocate skipping note reading. However, it further discusss the complications of conventional notation and how note reading is not an absolute necessity to learn to play and perform music. In support of that, here is the first paragraph:

"So many parents are told the necessity of note reading and the values of a classical approach to learning music. Why is that? I won't address that until later. First I want to ask you a couple of questions. Who were the most successful contemporary artists of the twentieth century (and maybe of all time)? The answer, of course is the Beatles. The second most successful and undoubtedly the longest lasting artists are the Rolling Stones. How many of them could read notes during the peak of their careers? Let s see, there were four Beatles and five Rolling Stones and NONE of them could read a note. They spawned the British Invasion of which most of the artists couldn t read a note. How important, then, is note reading? It s certainly not necessary to write monster hit songs like Yesterday, Something, Satisfaction, and a huge list of others. At one time, the Beatles held five of the top ten hits on the charts all at the same time. And they couldn t read a note."

The article is worth your time to read and understand.