diff --git a/tools/perf/util/machine.c b/tools/perf/util/machine.c
index dc7aafe45a2b..e00dc413652d 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/machine.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/machine.c
@@ -209,6 +209,18 @@ void machine__exit(struct machine *machine)
 
 	for (i = 0; i < THREADS__TABLE_SIZE; i++) {
 		struct threads *threads = &machine->threads[i];
+		struct thread *thread, *n;
+		/*
+		 * Forget about the dead, at this point whatever threads were
+		 * left in the dead lists better have a reference count taken
+		 * by who is using them, and then, when they drop those references
+		 * and it finally hits zero, thread__put() will check and see that
+		 * its not in the dead threads list and will not try to remove it
+		 * from there, just calling thread__delete() straight away.
+		 */
+		list_for_each_entry_safe(thread, n, &threads->dead, node)
+			list_del_init(&thread->node);
+
 		exit_rwsem(&threads->lock);
 	}
 }
@@ -1758,9 +1770,11 @@ static void __machine__remove_thread(struct machine *machine, struct thread *th,
 	if (threads->last_match == th)
 		threads__set_last_match(threads, NULL);
 
-	BUG_ON(refcount_read(&th->refcnt) == 0);
 	if (lock)
 		down_write(&threads->lock);
+
+	BUG_ON(refcount_read(&th->refcnt) == 0);
+
 	rb_erase_cached(&th->rb_node, &threads->entries);
 	RB_CLEAR_NODE(&th->rb_node);
 	--threads->nr;
@@ -1770,9 +1784,16 @@ static void __machine__remove_thread(struct machine *machine, struct thread *th,
 	 * will be called and we will remove it from the dead_threads list.
 	 */
 	list_add_tail(&th->node, &threads->dead);
+
+	/*
+	 * We need to do the put here because if this is the last refcount,
+	 * then we will be touching the threads->dead head when removing the
+	 * thread.
+	 */
+	thread__put(th);
+
 	if (lock)
 		up_write(&threads->lock);
-	thread__put(th);
 }
 
 void machine__remove_thread(struct machine *machine, struct thread *th)
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/thread.c b/tools/perf/util/thread.c
index b413ba5b9835..7bfb740d2ede 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/thread.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/thread.c
@@ -125,10 +125,27 @@ void thread__put(struct thread *thread)
 {
 	if (thread && refcount_dec_and_test(&thread->refcnt)) {
 		/*
-		 * Remove it from the dead_threads list, as last reference
-		 * is gone.
+		 * Remove it from the dead threads list, as last reference is
+		 * gone, if it is in a dead threads list.
+		 *
+		 * We may not be there anymore if say, the machine where it was
+		 * stored was already deleted, so we already removed it from
+		 * the dead threads and some other piece of code still keeps a
+		 * reference.
+		 *
+		 * This is what 'perf sched' does and finally drops it in
+		 * perf_sched__lat(), where it calls perf_sched__read_events(),
+		 * that processes the events by creating a session and deleting
+		 * it, which ends up destroying the list heads for the dead
+		 * threads, but before it does that it removes all threads from
+		 * it using list_del_init().
+		 *
+		 * So we need to check here if it is in a dead threads list and
+		 * if so, remove it before finally deleting the thread, to avoid
+		 * an use after free situation.
 		 */
-		list_del_init(&thread->node);
+		if (!list_empty(&thread->node))
+			list_del_init(&thread->node);
 		thread__delete(thread);
 	}
 }