Deep Purple's music goes classic and contemporary.(Venue)

Byline: Ron Gonzales FOR THE Journal

It seems like everyone has an opinion about Janet Jackson's Super Bowl halftime hullaballoo, including Deep Purple lead vocalist Ian Gillan, who shared his with me in a recent phone interview from his Vancouver, British Columbia, hotel.

"When you have been around in the business as long as Janet Jackson has, there's got to be a time when you start to think of your personal dignity," Gillan said. "It was so contrived and there was not a bit of wit to be found there."

Gillan's opinion of Jackson might be different had her performance not overshadowed something a little dearer to Gillan's heart -- namely, the NFL's honoring of the space shuttle Columbia, before the game.

It seems that Gillan and one of Columbia's crew members -- Kalpana Chawla of India -- were exchanging e-mails as Chawla cruised outer space and Gillan and the rest of Deep Purple recorded "Bananas," the band's excellent release from late last year.

Band members sat and watched the television accounts of Columbia's breakup over the United States and were alternately horrified and touched, having communicated with Chawla, an avowed fan of Deep Purple, who awoke daily to the band's "Space Truckin' '' while in orbit.

"We all turned up at the studio, stunned," Gillan said. "(Guitarist) Steve (Morse) walked in and he just plugged in and played what he had written as he watched the events unfold. And that's how 'Contact Lost' came to be written."