Keenan and his Perfect Circle bandmates were doing interviews for their upcoming debut album, Mer de Noms (Virgin, May 23), at a rehearsal space in Southern California's San Fernando Valley, and after politely asking the others to quiet down, he joked to his drummer and former Guns N' Roses skinsman, Josh Freese, that he sounded like Axl Rose. When the writer who was told to ''Shhhh'' started taking notes, the band's camp got a bit miffed and told the writer that if he wrote about this, his interview would be squashed. We can't quite figure out what's so bad about saying, ''I'm turning into Axl.'' It's a fair enough comment, and Keenan's remark seemed more self-deprecating than anything else anyway. Well, needless to say, the writer in question went home without the interview.