diff --git a/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN b/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN
index 26d4d3fd6deb2e1285ca44c9a710e7cadffd374d..9c5fb4d93824e406d534631a39ca96ea48e415a0 100755
--- a/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN
+++ b/tools/perf/util/PERF-VERSION-GEN
@@ -23,12 +23,7 @@ if test -d ../../.git -o -f ../../.git &&
 then
 	VN=$(echo "$VN" | sed -e 's/-/./g');
 else
-	eval $(grep '^VERSION[[:space:]]*=' ../../Makefile|tr -d ' ')
-	eval $(grep '^PATCHLEVEL[[:space:]]*=' ../../Makefile|tr -d ' ')
-	eval $(grep '^SUBLEVEL[[:space:]]*=' ../../Makefile|tr -d ' ')
-	eval $(grep '^EXTRAVERSION[[:space:]]*=' ../../Makefile|tr -d ' ')
-
-	VN="${VERSION}.${PATCHLEVEL}.${SUBLEVEL}${EXTRAVERSION}"
+	VN=$(make -sC ../.. kernelversion)
 fi
 
 VN=$(expr "$VN" : v*'\(.*\)')