We're an american band??

Let me just start this one off with a big what the fuck?

I arrived at work today and went through my usual routine of checking my phone and such for messages and came across a text from a childhood friend. He has a band and his drummer was out of town weekend before last so he invited me up to practice to fill in for the guy, basically just to fool around and have some fun. We did just that, played until about 2 or 3 am and called it a night and I thought nothing more of it, (though he did mention the idea of me learning their stuff and kind of being a stand-by drummer if their regular guy wasn't able to make a show or something). Blah blah, short story long he messages me and goes on as to how he's kicking it at the beach and pondering who their drummer should be. I asked about their regular drummer, he says their having a "small" issue with him *shrugs*. He asks me what I think about maybe being their regular drummer, (apparently they liked how I played). I'm a tad hesitant, but I told him I'm willing to give it a go and he tells me to go ahead and learn all the songs; apparently I'm now in a band.
   To innocent onlookers this probably appears to be a good thing, but it's pretty bittersweet for me. I've tried off and on to put a band together since about 2002. Three [four?] bands have came and went since then with everything just falling apart each time. Some pretty decent material has came from those days, but it more or less has never left my living room (aka "the studio"). I love to and dearly miss playing, and at my age any opportunity to play should be considered a good one. The problem is, these guys are pretty much a cover band and they are still a tad green, so at the same time it's a bit of an ego blow, kinda like I'm "taking what I can get" at this point. Now this is nothing against the band at all, I really had a good time playing with them and I don't mind playing covers at all. It's just that I enjoy writing and creating original music as well, and though they want to do this in the future, it's going to be awhile before they are ready for that; and who's to say any of us will even be on the same page musically when that time comes?
   *sigh* I'm just going to roll with this and see where it goes. I'm always the pessimist, so I really need to try to give this a chance before I condemn it to fail. Non the less, I am still approaching this with trepidation.

Time will tell, perhaps you will hear about it here...