His first live concert was The Beatles, tagging along with his sister, and he was instantly hooked.

"You could just hear them play over the screaming, it was incredible," he said.

"Their first song was When I Saw Her Standing There and that was it for me - I came home and asked my parents for a guitar."

Fast-forward a few decades and English is now paying homage to the four Liverpool lads who lit his musical fuse, belting out some Beatles hits in his new show.

The Trilogy of Rock concert also includes tracks from the Rolling Stones, Queen, Bob Dylan and The Eagles - all bands that came of age during English's younger years.

"1964 to 1980 was like my period of growing up, I'm the link between all the songs," he said.

"It's that baby boomer generation ... we were teenagers in the 1960s and there was this huge market of kids ready to encapsulate music, [artists] just sold so many records."

Despite more than 40 years playing rock, English still loves touring and performing live and admits, even at the age of 65, that he has no plans to slow down.

"I still love it," he said.

"I think any performer in my age group wouldn't even contemplate retirement because they don't know what they'd do, you'd go mad.

"The decision to keep playing is not because it's my career, but by choice - I keep doing it because I like it; I count myself lucky that I'm in the small percentage of people who are doing a job they love."

English started his career in rock but soon took a detour to musical theatre, playing the role of Judas Iscariot in the 1972 Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar.

He followed that up with roles in The Pirates of Penzance in 1994 and The Mikado in 1995.

While he hasn't done theatre for more than a decade, English says he wouldn't rule out a return to the stage.

"I said a little a while ago that I wouldn't do a musical again, which was quite big-headed of me because some people would just feel lucky to do one musical," he said.

"I'd love to do it again but I've very nicely told myself it would have to be a short run; with a touring musical you can be away for 18 months at a time, grabbing the odd three-day weekend here and there after flying across the country. It's really hard work and it's hard on your family."

But English does still make time for overseas travel, playing at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2013, with plans to perform again this year.

"They absolutely love their metal over there, it's crazy," he said.

"I've dome some fairly hard-rock albums but I got this weird review that I was the only [performer] who had two things the other bands didn't - one was a tie and the other was a flute; I loved that, I thought it was hilarious."

But before that, English will tour the country with his rock show then take time out to write his long-awaited memoirs.

"We've got a lot of closet writers in our family so I thought I'd give it a lash," he said.

"There's definitely a lot to tell but mainly I've just been lucky; it comes down to being in the right place at the right time ... I call it serendipity, that gut feeling of stuff going right."

Jon English: Trilogy of Rock