Elton John 2000–present
 Elton John was deeply affected by the plight of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager with AIDS. Along with Michael Jackson, John befriended and supported the boy and his family until White's death in 1990. Himself a mess and confronted by his then-lover, John checked into a Chicago hospital in 1990 to combat his drug abuse, alcoholism, and bulimia. In recovery, he lost weight and underwent hair replacement, and subsequently took up residence in Atlanta, Georgia. Also in 1990, John would finally achieve his first UK number one hit on his own, with Sacrifice (coupled with Healing Hands) from the previous year's album Sleeping with the Past; it would stay at the top spot for six weeks.
The 1991 film documentary Two Rooms described the unusual writing style that John and Bernie Taupin use, which involves Taupin writing the lyrics on his own, and John then putting them to music, with the two never in the same room during the process. That same year, the Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin tribute album came out, featuring contributions from many top British and American rock and pop performers. Also in 1991, John's Basque won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and a guest concert appearance he had made on George Michael's reverent treatment of Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me was released as a single and topped the charts in both the U.S. and UK. On November 24, 1991 Queen singer Freddie Mercury, a close friend of John's, died of AIDS. John was one of the few invited to attend the singer's private funeral services.
In 1992 he established the Elton John AIDS Foundation, intending to direct 90 percent of the funds it raised to direct care, and 10 percent to AIDS prevention education. He also announced his intention to donate all future royalties from sales of his singles in the U.S. and UK to AIDS research. That year, he released the U.S. number 8 album The One, his highest-charting release since 1976's Blue Moves, and John and Taupin signed a music publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music for an estimated $39 million over 12 years, giving them the largest cash advance in music publishing history. John performed Bohemian Rhapsody and The Show Must Go On with Queen at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, an AIDS charity event held at Wembley Stadium, London in honour of Queen's late front man Freddie Mercury. Bohemian Rhapsody featured a duet with Axl Rose, a reconciliatory gesture given Rose's previous homophobic reputation.
In September of the same year, he performed November Rain with Rose's band Guns N' Roses for the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. The following year, he released Elton John's Duets, a collaboration with 15 artists ranging from Tammy Wynette to RuPaul. This also included a new collaboration with Kiki Dee, entitled True Love, which reached the Top 10 of the UK charts, and a duet with Eric Clapton on Runaway Train, which also charted.
In 1994, along with Tim Rice, he wrote the songs for the Disney animated film The Lion King. (Rice was reportedly stunned by the rapidity with which John was able to set his words to music.) The Lion King went on to become the highest-grossing traditionally-animated feature of all time, with the songs playing a key part. Three of the five songs nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song that year were John and Rice songs from The Lion King, with Can You Feel the Love Tonight winning. (John acknowledged his domestic partner, Canadian film-maker David Furnish, at the ceremonies.) In versions sung by John, both that and Circle of Life became big hits, while the other songs such as Hakuna Matata achieved popularity with all ages as well. Can You Feel the Love Tonight would also win John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. After the release of the soundtrack, the album remained at the top of Billboard's charts for nine weeks. On November 10, 1999, the RIAA announced that the album The Lion King had sold 15 million copies and therefore was certified as a diamond record with room to spare.
The cover of the Princess Diana tribute album/single, Candle In The Wind 1997Elton John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1994. He and Bernie Taupin had previously been inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992. Elton John was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1995.
In 1995 John released Made in England (number #3, 1995), which featured the hit single Believe (number #15, 1995). Also, a compilation called Elton John's Love Songs was released the following year.
The year 1997 found extreme highs and lows for John. Early in the year, vestiges of the flamboyant Elton resurfaced as he threw a 50th birthday party, costumed as Louis XIV, for 500 friends (the costume cost more than $80,000). John also performed with the surviving members of Queen in Paris at the opening night (17th January, 1997) of Le Presbytere N'a Rien Perdu De Son Charme Ni Le Jardin Du Son Eclat, a work by French ballet legend Maurice Bejart which draws upon AIDS and the deaths of Freddie Mercury and the company's principal dancer Jorge Donn. This was only the second time the three surviving members of Queen had performed together live since Mercury had died. Unfortunately, later in 1997 John lost two close friends, designer Gianni Versace (who was murdered) and Diana, Princess of Wales (who died in a Paris car crash).
In early September, Taupin altered the lyrics of Candle in the Wind for a special version mourning the death of Diana, and John performed it at her funeral in Westminster Abbey. A recorded version, Candle in the Wind 1997, then became the fastest- and biggest-selling single of all time, eventually going on to sell 5 million copies in the United Kingdom, 11 million in the U.S., and around 33 million worldwide, with the proceeds of approximately ?55 million going to the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. It would later win John the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, an achievement he has yet to repeat. He hasn't performed the song since Princess Diana's funeral, as John stated it would only be played once to lend it significance and make it special.
1998 saw the production of Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida where John again teamed with Tim Rice. The musical was given it's World Premiere in Atlanta, GA at the Alliance Theatre where John was able to drop in on rehearsals from time to time. Dropping the cumbersome title as well as many of the production elements that gave the Atlanta production so many headaches, Aida went on to Chicago and eventually Broadway.
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