This old chestnut....
I play in a covers band, and my opinion is that in a covers band you are copying the best musicians in the industry, covering many styles, and offers a real challenge, whereas in an original band you will often will stay within your comfort zones and level of ability, both have ther merits but to hear nonsense about selling souls is just plain wrong. Often bands dont cover songs........because they can't, and writing original material is easy, writing great original material is insanely hard, and incredibly rare, and I for one get very tired of hearing predicatable immature writing performed, don't get me wrong there are some excellent originals bands out there (such as sketchbeat) but they are in the minority.
And, it's pretty much all already been done, and therefore originals tend to be 'influenced' by what has gone before, therefore represents a watered down cover.....
RETIRES TO SAFE DISTANCE