Scott Weiland News

The blotter-friendly, much-rehabbed rocker was charged Wednesday with a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of drugs with a prior conviction, prosecutors said.

The complaint alleges that, after running his Mercedes into another vehicle on a Los Angeles freeway last month, the Velver Revolver vocalist refused to take a chemical test, according to Frank Mateljan of the L.A. City Attorney's Office.

If convicted, Weiland would face between eight days and a year in county jail, along with a $1,000 fine and have his ride impounded for 30 days.

The 40-year-old singer, who remains free on $40,000 bail, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday. Because the charge is a misdemenaor, Weiland does not have to put in face time in court.

There was no immediate comment from Weiland, who was scheduled to take the stage with the band at Los Angeles' Gibson Amphitheater later Wednesday.

But following the Nov. 21 motoring mishap, in which no one was injured, Velvet Revolver's management said that Weiland wasn't driving under the influence and that a Breathalyzer test will show his blood-alcohol level was "well within the legal limit."

If nothing else, Weiland's got new chapter fodder for his in-the-works autobiography, which at this rate should be approaching War and Peace scale.

Weiland's arrest record dates back to his days as frontman for the Stone Temple Pilots. Most recently, in 2003, he pleaded no contest to a DUI charge stemming from an arrest on his 36th birthday. As part of his sentence in that case, he did a stint in rehab that forced the postponement of Velvet Revolver's first major tour.

The same week of his latest arrest, Velvet Revolver announced that the band had not only been denied visas to Japan for a series of December dates but also would be scuttling five dates Down Under due to "personal reasons" unrelated to Weiland's bust.

Barring any other missteps, the band, on the road in support of Libertad, is still scheduled to play shows Dec. 29 in Trenton, New Jersey, and Dec. 31 in New York.