diff --git a/tools/perf/util/evsel.c b/tools/perf/util/evsel.c
index e44be52..c95267e 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/evsel.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/evsel.c
@@ -66,6 +66,9 @@
 	if (FD(evsel, cpu, thread) < 0)
 		return -EINVAL;
 
+	if (evsel->counts == NULL && perf_evsel__alloc_counts(evsel, cpu + 1) < 0)
+		return -ENOMEM;
+
 	if (readn(FD(evsel, cpu, thread), &count, nv * sizeof(u64)) < 0)
 		return -errno;
 
@@ -129,6 +132,9 @@
 {
 	int cpu;
 
+	if (evsel->fd == NULL && perf_evsel__alloc_fd(evsel, cpus->nr, 1) < 0)
+		return -1;
+
 	for (cpu = 0; cpu < cpus->nr; cpu++) {
 		FD(evsel, cpu, 0) = sys_perf_event_open(&evsel->attr, -1,
 							cpus->map[cpu], -1, 0);
@@ -150,6 +156,9 @@
 {
 	int thread;
 
+	if (evsel->fd == NULL && perf_evsel__alloc_fd(evsel, 1, threads->nr))
+		return -1;
+
 	for (thread = 0; thread < threads->nr; thread++) {
 		FD(evsel, 0, thread) = sys_perf_event_open(&evsel->attr,
 							   threads->map[thread], -1, -1, 0);