One of this year's biggest talking points in rock has revolved around the health issues of AC/DC guitarist Malcolm Young. Rumors of what the rock legend is going through have been swirling for months, but the Young family has chosen to keep the details private while the guitarist's nephew, Stevie Young, hit the recording studio for AC/DC's new album.

Last week, Malcolm Young news hit yet another peak after Australian AC/DC biographer Jesse Fink (author of 'The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC') publicly stated that he doesn't expect that Malcolm Young will return to AC/DC. We wanted to know more about what fueled Fink's opinion, so we spoke to the author for an exclusive interview.

"I'm really disappointed with how some media outlets -- not yours -- took what I said in that interview and twisted my words and misrepresented what I said," Fink begins. "It went from me saying I'm not expecting Malcolm to return, to outlets overseas that were saying Malcolm Young won't return, like it was a definitive statement. I never said he would never return. I said I'm giving my opinion and my opinion is I'm not personally expecting Malcolm Young to return to the band."

Fink adds, "The only person who really knows what's going on with Malcolm's medical situation is Malcolm himself, Malcolm's family and Malcolm's doctors. That needs to be understood."

The biographer soon began to describe why he was comfortable with making such a large and affective statement about Malcolm Young's future. "I've been in this AC/DC universe for the past 24 months and you meet a lot of people who tell you a lot of things. On the basis of things that you hear, that [Malcolm], who by Brian Johnson's own admission is dealing with a debilitating illness, is going to be able to get up onstage and do a 40-city, 40-show world tour and get up onstage and play 20 songs a night and do it as well as he did last time when he's supposedly dealing with this debilitating illness. In that context, do you think it's unreasonable to say I'm not expecting his return or I think it's doubtful that he'll return? Malcolm is the leader of the band. He's the one who wields the power, it's not Angus. So if Malcolm was really ready to come back, do you think that he would have allowed Stevie Young to go and record that album?"

Fink was unable to make direct contact with Malcolm Young or other current members of AC/DC for a first-hand account of how Malcolm's health is progressing. He has, however, gathered some second-hand information that led to his current beliefs about Malcolm Young's future with AC/DC. "I've heard from people who have had personal encounters with him who have said that they don't expect that he's going to be playing again," said Fink. "I wouldn't say that they know exactly what he's going through, they're just giving me their personal take on how he appeared to them and that's an important point to make."

The author adds, "We're not in the band. We don't know exactly what's going on between these individuals in the band. I can't say with any authority what is going on inside the band."

Stay tuned for more updates on AC/DC and Malcolm Young along with our full interview with Jesse Fink. To grab a copy of Jesse Fink's 'The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC,' click here. Also, be sure to check out the book's official Facebook page.

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