For fans of rock ‘n’ roll, the mere mention of AC/DC doesn’t just ring a bell, it rings Hells Bells . The chartbusting single was the first track of the legendary Australian hard rock act’s seventh studio album Back in Black , released in 1980 to universal acclaim. Having sold close to 50 million copies of that album and more than 200 million albums to date, AC/DC could rightfully claim their spot among the biggest selling bands of all time.

That said, even after 40 electrifying years of entertaining fans with their unabashedly groovy rock riffs, little was known about the dynamics that drove the siblings and founders of the band — The Young brothers, Angus, Malcolm and George. Australian writer Jesse Fink intends to change that with his latest book, a rock biography titled The Youngs — The Brothers who built AC/DC . Excerpts from an e-interview with Fink.

Tell us about your first brush with AC/DC’s music? How did they get to you?

Well, I’m 42 years old now and I’ve listened to AC/DC since my teens. That said, I’ve only been a “fan” of the band from about 2011, when I had an epiphany listening to Gimme a Bullet off Powerage .

I was probably at my lowest point in my life following a particularly stressful divorce, and AC/DC’s music came into my life right when I needed it.

That story opens the book and I’m very thankful for AC/DC rescuing me when it did.

You were a prolific sports journalist for long; what were the challenges in penning an all-out rock chronicle?

Yes, I had a pretty good career as a sports columnist in Australia and even wrote for a newspaper in New Delhi for a short time, as well as Fox Sports in Singapore.

But after a while I found writing about sport very limiting on a creative level. I was much more interested in writing about other things — music, sex, relationships.

One of the advantages of writing The Youngs without any background in music writing was that I had no allegiances to anyone inside the music industry, so I could tell the story as I wanted to tell it.

There was no one I needed to mollycoddle or protect. One disadvantage of being relatively unknown, of course, is that you have to convince people to talk to you and the Young brothers did not cooperate with me. That was expected.

They are well known for being a closed shop when it comes to biographers. But I spoke to almost 100 important figures who had never talked about AC/DC before and got a whole new story. It all comes down to determination and good journalism.

At a time when bands are looking at reinvention to endear their music to a new generation of listeners, how is AC/DC getting away with belting out the same music they played when they first formed?

The fans of AC/DC are drawn to their stripped-down, no-bulls**t ethos. It’s reflected in their music and in their image. Their lyrics aren’t the same as when late vocalist Bon Scott was in the band, that’s for sure.

The lyrics on Rock or Bust (their latest album) are quite ordinary. In my view they’ve been ordinary from about 1980 onwards, ever since Bon died. Bon gave AC/DC a sprinkling of magic. The lion’s share of the band’s ‘greatest hits’ was written by Bon.

But what hasn’t changed is the ability of the Youngs to conjure up amazing riffs. The combination of guitarists Angus Young (lead) and Malcolm Young (rhythm) and now Angus and Stevie Young (rhythm) is something special. There’s no mistaking the AC/DC sound. Other bands try to replicate it but they can’t.

Fans are very loyal to the brand of AC/DC and part of the brand is their sound. I consider AC/DC more of a brand than a band nowadays, even though Rock or Bust is a really good, tight record.

You seem to be quite critical of frontman Brian Johnson’s stint in AC/DC, but isn’t it true that for a lot of new listeners, he is the so-called voice of the band?

As much as I love AC/DC, I’m not a huge listener of Brian Johnson-era AC/DC and I make no secret of that. They’re two different bands. In my view Brian’s voice hasn’t held up that well. If I want to listen to AC/DC albums, I listen to the stuff they put out between 1975 and 1979 with Bon Scott out front.

That era of AC/DC is the one I consider to be the most artistically significant. It was the creative peak of the band. Perhaps one thing I underestimated is the strength of that affection for Brian in the US.

The majority of those fans really got to know the band with Brian, whereas Australian and UK fans got to know the band with Bon.

Brian is clearly a lovely guy. But, speaking here as a listener, give me Bon any day. He had so much character and menace. Bon had a better voice than Brian.

He was a better writer and a better performer. I also suspect Bon had a hand in Back in Black , the band’s biggest album.

Do you have hopes for a musical renaissance of sorts, like we witnessed in the good ol’ days?

While I don’t agree with the proposition that rock is dead, I don’t hold out great hope for rock going forward. We’ll never see a period as fruitful for rock music as the 1970s. I could stop listening to anything recorded post 1979 and be very happy. I do love Southern rock. You’d find Blackberry Smoke, Black Crowes, early AC/DC, Molly Hatchet and The Outlaws on my iPod.

Who are the writers who were instrumental in your evolution as an author?

There are so many…Richard Russo, Robert Hughes, Stephen Vizinczey, Paul Theroux and Martin Amis. Vizinczey’s In Praise of Older Women inspired my second book, The Glimpse . I love Russo’s Nobody’s Fool . I am also partial to Clive James and David Lodge. I really enjoyed Jim Corbett’s tiger books too. I think Kumaon is an amazing part of the world.

Is there any book you are currently working on?

I’ve just started work on another music biography. It’s another rock book looking at a well known figure from the 1970s.

I just signed a deal with Penguin Random House in Australia and it will be released in 2017. I would love to get it to India. HarperCollins India put out a really great edition of The Youngs and championed it.

I’ve also had great support from Rolling Stone India . There is a growing rock market in India and we’re trying to tap into that.

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