YAY! I googled the answer for how to check if main page is index and so now this is the code I've added to the very bottom of my tpl_header.php file:

Code:
<?php if($current_page_base=='index' and !isset($_GET['cPath'])) { ?>
<div id="snwd-slideshow">
<!-- begin edit for ZX Slideshow -->
<?php if(ZX_SLIDESHOW_STATUS == 'true') { ?>
	<?php require($template->get_template_dir('zx_slideshow.php',DIR_WS_TEMPLATE, $current_page_base,'templates'). '/zx_slideshow.php'); ?>
<?php } ?>    
<!-- end edit for ZX Slideshow -->
</div>
<?php } ?>
The div id of "snwd-slideshow" is my own wrapper division in order to style it with a background that matches my main content container. The css for that is added to the "index_home.css" stylesheet and this is what I used (you'll need to style it your own way to match your own store):

#snwd-slideshow
{
display: table !important;
width: 100%;
background: #fff;
padding: 0;
}

Also, after I made sure everything is working properly I went ahead and removed the slideshow call from the tpl_index_default.php file so it's no longer coded into the center column area.

I made sure to back up all my files as I was going along in case anything went wrong so I could revert to the traditional slideshow display. And naturally this is all done in the overrides template files so nothing will break when I upgrade.

Since I am new at doing this much file editing (usually just stick to the css) if anyone reading this sees some glaring error I have made or that I have done this in a hacked up way, please feel free to correct me so I can learn.

I'm only posting this here about moving the slideshow so it shows directly under the header area with full width before left, right and center columns because I couldn't find the answer elsewhere and figured I would share what I found here in case someone else might want to try it.