diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree.c b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
index a14e5fbbea46..eb764c24bc4d 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/tree.c
+++ b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
@@ -3234,13 +3234,13 @@ static int __init rcu_spawn_gp_kthread(void)
 	t = kthread_create(rcu_gp_kthread, NULL, "%s", rcu_state.name);
 	if (WARN_ONCE(IS_ERR(t), "%s: Could not start grace-period kthread, OOM is now expected behavior\n", __func__))
 		return 0;
+	if (kthread_prio)
+		sched_setscheduler_nocheck(t, SCHED_FIFO, &sp);
 	rnp = rcu_get_root();
 	raw_spin_lock_irqsave_rcu_node(rnp, flags);
 	rcu_state.gp_kthread = t;
-	if (kthread_prio) {
+	if (kthread_prio)
 		sp.sched_priority = kthread_prio;
-		sched_setscheduler_nocheck(t, SCHED_FIFO, &sp);
-	}
 	raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore_rcu_node(rnp, flags);
 	wake_up_process(t);
 	rcu_spawn_nocb_kthreads();