scales

Begin with major scale patterns.  This will help you understand chord structure, and expand the fretboard for you.   You should be able to play them starting anywhere on the E A D and G strings.

Then learn pentatonics.  That's where the meat of your lead lines will come from.

You need to know more than just minor pentatonics, although they are a good place to start.

You'll want minor pentatonics when you're playing in a minor key.  Playing minor pentatonics over a song written in a major key is going to sound odd.   For most blues this is great, but if you want to be a good blues player, you should also learn myxolidian modal scales, as they sound great over dominant 7th chords, which are rife within blues as well.   But if you're playing a song in a major key, you'll want the major pentatonics for that.

You should know the major and minor scales for each key.   The root of it all is that you should understand how a scale is derived, and how it applies to the fretboard.   If you understand that, there isn't anything you cant play.

Scales are the foundation of music.  It's worth it to understand them.

Thats fine, but the OP indicated he'd been playing rhythm for years.

And scale theory isn't complex, particularly with regards to the fretboard.  It's pretty critical, in fact.   

There are only two or three scale patterns you need to know, and you can them play in any key.  I can teach you one pattern, and that will give you 12 different scales.  I can teach you another pattern, and it will give you 12 more scales.

Pentatonic scales, major and minor, are the same way.  There are only 5 minor pentatonic patterns, but none of them will work well against anything other than a minor key.  If you're in a major key, you should deriving your lead lines from major scales.

scales are the rules, you need to learn em , then learn how to break em, thats why  the top guys sound so good