if you check out the first song, or the first song from the second link:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=551993&songID=10495595&showPlayer=true
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=551993&songID=8537661&showPlayer=true
you'll see two examples where i wrote the rhythms, and play them, but if i attempt to count while doing so, i'd almost definitely get tripped up, and surely wouldn't get anything from it, whereas just feeling and playing them works just fine.
there are times when i'm reading music, that counting out where everything falls can clarify the feel of a passage, but if you're rocking and rolling, or swinging a song, or learning to play a song by ear, you really need to feel the music, or you'll never progress past a sort of mechanical, stilted playing that can't possibly be any fun or of interest to you or the audience. i'm not saying don't count. you may have to, but that can't be the end of it.
Don't throw away the metronome just yet. Counting is good for keeping one's place, escpecially important for the change that's comming up, note to note, strum to strum...gotta use the metronome, IMHO.
