Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell predicted the band would return to pay tribute to late leader Tom Petty, and suggested the reunion might revolve around their expected Wildflowers box set.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted the idea of future performances had seemed unlikely in the months following Petty’s death last year. “I just couldn’t think about doing that,” Campbell said. “I thought it would just be too sad since we’d be missing our older brother.” With more time having passed, he said, “Of course we’ll play again someday. We love each other too much not to do that.”

Details haven’t been discussed, with Campbell committed to his new role in Fleetwood Mac for the coming year and work to be done on archive releases to follow the upcoming An American Treasure set, including the Wildflowers collection, which remains under consideration. “It would be a great tribute to Tom just to do that album,” Campbell said. “We’d probably have four or five different guest singers with us. We don’t know who they might be, though, or when this might happen.”

However, he ruled out the idea of the Heartbreakers touring with a singer in place of Petty. “Nobody can fill those shoes,” he stated. “I can’t fill them and I don’t anybody else that I would want to fill them.”

The only possibility, Campbell noted, was the band working with a new member on new music, releasing an album and then touring with a set based on those songs. “But that’s just pie-in-the-sky talk,” he admitted. “It definitely would have to be all-new material. It wouldn’t be going out and doing Heartbreaker songs without Tom. That would be just like … ugh.”