[Editor's note: Over the holiday season, SonicNet is looking back at 1999's top stories, chosen by our editors and writers. This story originally ran on Tuesday, Nov. 30.]

LOS ANGELES — Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland is

scheduled to be freed from Los Angeles County Jail in the spring, after

serving about two-thirds of his sentence for violating his probation on

a heroin conviction, according to the Inmate Information office.

Weiland, who turned 32 last month, is to be released April 1, according

to an operator at the information office, who would not give her name.

That will be 246 days into his sentence at Biscaluz Recovery Center, the

jail's drug-rehabilitation division.

The operator said it is normal for inmates to serve only a percentage of

their sentences.

Weiland was sentenced on Sept. 3 to a year at the center after admitting to

violating the terms of his probation for an August 1998 heroin conviction.

He received 35 days of credit for time served before sentencing.

Assistant District Attorney Norm Montrose, who prosecuted Weiland, could

not be reached by press time for comment. STP's management had no comment.

Stone Temple Pilots' spokesperson at Atlantic Records, who preferred not

to be named, said the band has not made plans around Weiland's expected

release date. She said the Los Angeles group hopes to tour in support of

its recently released fourth album, No. 4, but will not talk

seriously about it until sometime in the new year.

"Everything is still tentative," she said, adding that the band would

need only a few weeks to prepare for an outing.

She said the singer is doing well in his rehab program.

Weiland's counselors said they could not discuss his progress. Louis Lopez,

Biscaluz's program director and one of the singer's counselors, previously

said he would recommend an early release if he felt Weiland had proved

a commitment to staying clean.

Weiland, who has publicly battled drug addiction since 1995, made one

public statement from jail, a written message in which he pondered the

meaning of freedom and concluded, "This is not a life sentence."

Los Angeles County Jail receives about 15 letters and two or three packages

a week for Weiland from around the country, the information office

representative said.

Another source, who asked to remain anonymous, said that estimate of

mailings sent to Weiland is more than conservative. "You couldn't even

count them," the source said. "There's lots of love that comes through

here for that guy."

Stone Temple Pilots released No. 4, their first album in more than

three years, last month. The LP, featuring the single "Down" (RealAudio

excerpt), is at #74 on the Billboard 200 albums chart,

after debuting in early November at #6.

The band is considering either the hard-rocker "Heaven & Hot Rods"

(RealAudio

excerpt) or the pop-oriented "Sour Girl" (RealAudio

excerpt) as the album's second single, according to the Atlantic

spokesperson. That single will be released to radio next year, she said.