Speaking to Fly from his home in the hills around Kangaroo Valley, he was in the serene mood he finds whenever he gets to down tools and enjoy some peace and quiet - before jetting out of Sydney for another show.

"It's a very public job," he says, so when he is not working it is great to get into a big valley with no humans at all. "I am incredibly interested in leading an anonymous life," he says, saying celebrity is "no good for anything except ruining your life".

And Hunter is in a position to know, having seen his fair share of rock'n'roll's ravages during the ARIA Hall of Fame inductee's amazingly successful, hard-working, sometimes hard-living career.

It is this career that will be put through a retrospective lens during their latest tour that divides the band's history into three distinct eras. Dubbed the Young Years, the Glory Years and the Phoenix Years, the Trilogy Concert Tour is "a way of honouring those eras" through the songs that came out of them, and "a way of making sense of everything that has happened in the last 40 years".

The Young Years (1973 -1979) is the period charting Dragon's formation in New Zealand, where they chose their name after a throw of the Chinese I Ching. It saw their move to Australia in 1975, and the release of mega hits April Sun in Cuba, This Time and Are You Old Enough.

Reforming in 1982 after splitting up in 1979, the Glory Years (1982-1988) saw the band back together, in part to pay for the excesses of their earlier incarnation. It includes the period where on the strength of supertune Rain, Dragon dominated airwaves in 1983. It was also the time where another of their massive hits, Young Years, was born.

The Phoenix Years (2006 to the present) includes songs from the band's history following their break-up after the death of front man Marc Hunter. It is an age where brother Todd has kept the hearth fires burning, a time where the "A, B, C" of Dragon is to keep on playing shows.

With a lot of musical and emotional ground to cover, the Trilogy concert is articulated in a way that makes sense for such an iconic band.

No strangers to doing shows organised with a theme, there was a recent acoustic tour of New Zealand cathedrals and churches, a 40th anniversary tour, and shows played in Sydney and Melbourne where they got up and did a Dragon set, followed by a set of Police songs. It is an approach Hunter says Dragon employs as a way of staying fresh and avoiding just bashing out the big hits.

Though whatever the format, the pull of what Hunter describes as almost "folkloric" tracks is a strong one. "The songs are so important," he says, describing them as "an increasingly vital part of the band".

It is a component that lets Dragon get up and play gigs like the recent Rhythm and Vines festival in New Zealand, and strut their stuff before 35,000 people, packed with young faces screaming back words they know by heart.

At the Trilogy concert, Dragon will be selling a three CD box set of live shows from the '70s, '80s and today.

Where: The Abbey, Nicholls

When: Friday, May 23, 8.30pm. Support act from 7.30pm

Tickets: $40 show only, $80 dinner and show.