Dragon studied piano at San Fernando Valley State College from 1963–1966, dropping out to form a band with his brothers.

In 1968, Dragon and his brother Dennis formed a studio band called The Mission, which produced a one-off single on the small Bet Records label: "Calmilly"/"Galing Made It".

In 2007, UK label Ninja Tune discovered that the recording engineer, Donn Landee, still had the master tapes and they released the album.

[6] Dragon contributed vibes and melodica in the song "Wind 'n' Sea" by the band Farm, a group assembled by his brothers Dennis and Doug for the soundtrack to The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun (1970), a surf film directed by George Greenough.

Dragon also made significant contributions with keyboarding and musical scoring on the Beach Boys' 1972 release Carl and the Passions – "So Tough"; he co-wrote the track "Cuddle Up" with Dennis Wilson.

Dragon served as musical director for The Beach Boys' concert on September 22, 1971, at The Ramada Inn in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

The concert was the first-ever appearance of South African musicians Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin in the band, essentially changing the Beach Boys' live act into a multi-cultural group.

A plaque featuring Dragon's name was unveiled by Roger Williams University and music historians Al Gomes and Connie Watrous of Big Noise at the Baypoint Inn & Conference Center in Portsmouth on September 21, 2017, honoring The Beach Boys for a significant historic event in their career.

[8][9] In 1971, Dragon met his future wife Toni Tennille in San Francisco during auditions for Mother Earth.

The album included sexually explicit lyrics which Dragon was not aware of, as the band didn't have the vocals down yet when he was recording with them.

[18] Dragon suffered from megalocornea, a condition which results in the enlargement of the transparent front part of the eye and iris.

Tennille had reported on her blog in 2010 her husband's neurological condition was characterized by such extreme tremors he could no longer play keyboards.

"[30] In an interview published in a February 2017 issue of People, Dragon stated he was making great progress and feeling like himself again, after corrections were made in the dosage of medications he was taking, which had been causing side effects.