Tommy Lee's In Trouble Again...

When faced with the prospect of coping with rush hour traffic... wouldn't you much rather call a helicopter to deliver you to your destination? Well, that option is unavailable to most of us... but not to former Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, who... in true rock star fashion... called his helicopter to pick him up from his house last month, so he could make a timely arrival to a Nine-Inch Nails concert in LA.

Just one problem... the helicopter literally picked Lee up from his Hollywood Hills residence on July 7 -- landing in the street in front of his house.

That didn't sit well with Los Angeles County Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, who on Monday filed criminal charges against the pilot of the chopper, saying the action was dangerous, ususual... and oh yeah, illegal.

Delgadillo tells the Los Angeles Times that pilot David Keith Martz landed not once, but twice outside the home... ferrying Lee and his passengers to and from the show, over neighbor objections... and city statutes.

Of course, as you might expect... this wasn't the first time the hard-partying rock star, and ex-husband of Pamela Anderson has had chopper trouble.

According to a public relations spokesperson, two years ago the Los Angeles fire marshal forbade Motley Crue from landing their helicopter at the Hollywood Palladium for a concert. Instead... the band arrived in a hearse, which was evidently unavailable this time around.

"The public perception is yeah, if I had enough money I could just go here and there in my helicopter. But it really doesn't do you any good, because you can only go from airport to airport," said Larry Harris, a senior pilot for the Los Angeles Fire Department, about the incident.

FMI: www.tommylee.tv