Weiland Arrested for DUI

Just one week after a Los Angeles judge said Velvet Revolver singer Scott Weiland could remain free as long as he stays clean, the troubled rocker was arrested for driving under the influence.

Weiland was arrested by the Los Angeles police around 6:30 a.m. on Monday (his thirty-sixth birthday) after he lost control of his car and smashed into a parked car in Hollywood. He attempted to flee the scene, but was quickly caught by officers and arrested for one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence, according to an LAPD spokesperson.

The singer was booked and released from jail Monday afternoon after posting $15,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned in L.A. Municipal Court on November 17th. A police spokesperson could not specify what Weiland was under the influence of at the time of his arrest.

Last week, Judge Colette Serio had congratulated Weiland for completing most of the drug testing and counseling as a result of his no contest plea in August to two felony drug possession charges. Though he tested positive for drugs shortly after his May 17th arrest -- during which he was pulled over and found with drugs while driving with his headlights off -- subsequent tests have been clean. The judge warned Weiland that another dirty test could send him back to a residential treatment center.

While free, Weiland has been working on the debut album from Velvet Revolver, a supergroup that includes former Guns 'N Roses members Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum. Their as-yet-untitled album is slated for release in early 2004.

Weiland was scheduled to return to Serio's courtroom in January for a progress report. The judge had not yet been notified about the DUI, but a clerk in her courtroom said, "If there is a DUI case, she'd probably have him come in earlier." The clerk could not speculate on what the potential penalties could be.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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