He’s one of the most highly regarded musicians in Australian history, a talented film scribe and soundtrack creator – and an author to boot. Now seminal rocker Nick Cave has joked that his new novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, was partly inspired by pop divas Avril Lavigne and Kylie Minogue – or her hotpants, to be more exact.

A violent, bleakly sexual tale of a protagonist named Bunny, whose wife commits suicide after she discovers his philandering ways, Cave says he looked to his Australian pal for some of Bunny’s obsessions, which include the video to Minogue’s “Spinning Around”.

“The sexual obsessions that go through the male brain are a kind of mind static,” Cave told Rolling Stone. “A man thinks about unreal figures like Kylie and Avril to keep more terrifying thoughts at bay. Like love and intimacy. I’m not sure how Avril Lavigne came about, except that I personally like her very much, and something about her physicality seemed to be the right kind of thing for this character.”

With the book newly released, Cave said he hopes the girls like it. “I know Kylie and I’ve sent her a letter of apology for this book,” he jokes. “I’ve written one to Avril Lavigne – I don’t know where to send it.”