SINGER WEILAND WALKS A WELL-TROD, HEARTBREAKING PATH

You almost believed Scott Weiland this time, didn't you?

At least publicly, it seemed as if the lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots
had been clean long enough for public suspicions to give way to the belief
that even the most troubled among us can somehow turn their lives around.
There was even talk of his fronting a new band, and perhaps a revival of a
once-powerful career upended by persistent drug problems.

Then came word last week that Weiland had been arrested yet again, charged
with drug possession.

A few days before this latest arrest, Weiland's name was in the news for
all the right reasons. He had recorded two songs with former members of
Guns N' Roses -- guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Matt
Sorum -- and was touted as the possible lead singer for the band, called
Reloaded. Now, Weiland faces arraignment on Monday. If he is convicted, he
could face up to a year in jail.

From jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, who drank himself to death at age 28
in 1931, to former Alice in Chains lead singer Layne Staley, who succumbed
to the needle last year, popular music is littered with casualties of
substance abuse. It's a sorrowful list that includes Billie Holiday,
Charlie Parker, Judy Garland, Elvis Presley, David Ruffin, Janis Joplin,
Jimi Hendrix, and Bon Scott. And for the most part, when these troubled
lives ended, people were saddened but not surprised.

Buddy Arnold, cofounder of the Musicians' Assistance Program, which helps
artists with substance-abuse problems, has worked closely with Weiland
through his many rehab attempts. Arnold, himself a former addict, told MTV
News that he fears for the singer's life.

''The thing I'm worried about is waking up one day and hearing a news
report that he's dead,'' said Arnold, who in recent weeks helped Weiland
into a rehab facility, though the singer left after failing a drug test.
''I think it's possible for anyone to get clean. I just hope he does it
before he overdoses and dies, because that's where he's going.''

It's a long way from where Weiland was going in 1992. That year, Stone
Temple Pilots

released its debut CD, ''Core,'' an album filled with brawny, riff-heavy
hits such as ''Plush,'' ''Sex Type Thing,'' and ''Creep.'' Early on, some
critics derided STP as Pearl Jam poseurs and pretenders to the grunge
throne, but the power of Weiland's vocals and his commanding stage presence
reminiscent of Jim Morrison were irrefutable. A string of successful albums
and singles followed, but so did Weiland's mounting drug addiction. So
ferocious were Weiland's problems that in 1996, his band members held a
candid press conference to announce that STP was canceling several concerts
because of Weiland's ''dependency on drugs.'' His first marriage unraveled,
and his carousel of arrests, overdoses, rehab stints, and jail time for
heroin use put the band's future in doubt.

Then in 2000, he completed his sentence. Looking healthier than he had in
years, he joined STP for an installment of VH1's ''Storytellers.'' Weiland
told the crowd, ''I've been eight months clean and sober,'' and his
performance, especially on ''Plush,'' was near-transcendent. He seemed like
a man who had learned hard lessons, who was prepared to leave the shattered
relationships and wasted opportunities of his past in his rear view.

In an interview last year, Weiland told a Florida Times-Union reporter,
''Things have been going great now for a while. But I can't say that it's
something that I'm completely over. I'm reminded every day of how close I
am to it, in terms of how I respond to other things that I look for to fill
that space. There are a lot of things besides narcotics that you can use to
supplement your lack of self.''

Sadly, Weiland has yet to find them. Now a 35-year-old father of two young
children, he has seen his second marriage crumble, and his life seems more
uncertain than ever. STP remains on indefinite hiatus. His work with
Reloaded may never move beyond the few songs already recorded, one of
which, a cover of Pink Floyd's ''Money,'' appears on the soundtrack for the
remake of the British caper film, ''The Italian Job.''

In a statement last week, a spokesman for Slash said Weiland's troubles
don't ''affect the decision to have Scott be the singer because there is no
decision. Nothing has stopped. We're just trying to see where this leads.''
Unless Weiland can finally do what he's been incapable of doing for the
past decade -- getting and staying clean -- we already know where this will
lead. And if the worst happens, people will be saddened by the tragic news,
but not surprised.

Rene Graham's Life in the Pop Lane column appears on Tuesdays.