diff --git a/drivers/tty/tty_io.c b/drivers/tty/tty_io.c
index 7cef54334b12..1bb629ab8ecc 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/tty_io.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/tty_io.c
@@ -2070,13 +2070,12 @@ retry_open:
 		if (tty) {
 			mutex_unlock(&tty_mutex);
 			retval = tty_lock_interruptible(tty);
+			tty_kref_put(tty);  /* drop kref from tty_driver_lookup_tty() */
 			if (retval) {
 				if (retval == -EINTR)
 					retval = -ERESTARTSYS;
 				goto err_unref;
 			}
-			/* safe to drop the kref from tty_driver_lookup_tty() */
-			tty_kref_put(tty);
 			retval = tty_reopen(tty);
 			if (retval < 0) {
 				tty_unlock(tty);
diff --git a/drivers/tty/tty_mutex.c b/drivers/tty/tty_mutex.c
index d09293bc0e04..cff304abb619 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/tty_mutex.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/tty_mutex.c
@@ -24,10 +24,15 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(tty_lock);
 
 int tty_lock_interruptible(struct tty_struct *tty)
 {
+	int ret;
+
 	if (WARN(tty->magic != TTY_MAGIC, "L Bad %p\n", tty))
 		return -EIO;
 	tty_kref_get(tty);
-	return mutex_lock_interruptible(&tty->legacy_mutex);
+	ret = mutex_lock_interruptible(&tty->legacy_mutex);
+	if (ret)
+		tty_kref_put(tty);
+	return ret;
 }
 
 void __lockfunc tty_unlock(struct tty_struct *tty)