diff --git a/include/linux/perf_event.h b/include/linux/perf_event.h
index 4924c96d7e2de3d0c4ae71dae7101074c5f2ed09..3fd5c82e0e184c0690d8e62a2a459ad2dea279da 100644
--- a/include/linux/perf_event.h
+++ b/include/linux/perf_event.h
@@ -575,7 +575,6 @@ struct pmu {
  * enum perf_event_active_state - the states of a event
  */
 enum perf_event_active_state {
-	PERF_EVENT_STATE_FREE		= -3,
 	PERF_EVENT_STATE_ERROR		= -2,
 	PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF		= -1,
 	PERF_EVENT_STATE_INACTIVE	=  0,
diff --git a/kernel/perf_event.c b/kernel/perf_event.c
index 180151ff83762c841f66d9e268dcf10fa290b55d..a9047463fd83e26cf0e7756ce6a447d8dec5fb2c 100644
--- a/kernel/perf_event.c
+++ b/kernel/perf_event.c
@@ -334,9 +334,6 @@ list_del_event(struct perf_event *event, struct perf_event_context *ctx)
 	if (event->state > PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF)
 		event->state = PERF_EVENT_STATE_OFF;
 
-	if (event->state > PERF_EVENT_STATE_FREE)
-		return;
-
 	/*
 	 * If this was a group event with sibling events then
 	 * upgrade the siblings to singleton events by adding them
@@ -1871,8 +1868,6 @@ int perf_event_release_kernel(struct perf_event *event)
 {
 	struct perf_event_context *ctx = event->ctx;
 
-	event->state = PERF_EVENT_STATE_FREE;
-
 	WARN_ON_ONCE(ctx->parent_ctx);
 	/*
 	 * There are two ways this annotation is useful: