The secret of mastering lead guitar

If you are the lead guitarist in a band, you take your place as a part of a group. You support and are supported by the rhythm gutiarist, keyboards player, bassist and drummer. Until the solo. Then it's your moment of glory! Wind back in time to . . . er, now, I guess. What kind of lead guitar player are you going to be? Sure you have your favorite players who inspired you to begin studying the guitar, but how do you make the solo you are playing "your own"? Stamping your guitar playing with your own character starts with the WAY you play. Whether or not you just learn riffs and/or scales without any real repetitive practice to get your finger strength up is going to show in the way you present your guitar solos. It boils down to your physical control of the instrument. The degree to which you are master of this particular domain!
If you are interested mainly in blues music, then your choice of which scales and modes to learn is going to be governed by your relationship to the blues. If you need a little more versatility to play different kinds of music, you will need to look at expanding your repertoire of scales and chords.
Also knowing the fretboard up and down and inside out is a must. One way is simply to let your familiarity with the guitar neck build up with time, as you learn more songs and scales. Another way is to take advantage of a guitarist's tools like the ones at TabGuitarLessons They have a method of learning the fretboard in sixty minutes so you will immediately know where to find chords anywhere on the neck as well as enabling you to develop improvisation skills and be able to "jam" with other musicians. Their fretboard method works, and it's a free download!
Also don't forget to check out Lead Guitar Secrets