diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index 9b5089c5dffeea1446e4adcd9d274e9141880cec..baa82078c148a132115eed28749d0ae3a24f924f 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -1966,6 +1966,7 @@ int cmd_stat(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix __maybe_unused)
 	argc = parse_options_subcommand(argc, argv, stat_options, stat_subcommands,
 					(const char **) stat_usage,
 					PARSE_OPT_STOP_AT_NON_OPTION);
+	perf_stat__init_shadow_stats();
 
 	if (csv_sep) {
 		csv_output = true;
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c b/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c
index 5e2d2e34e1bc0224ae89622ba1e1d43c380bd54c..b33ffb2af2cf5900378fb9fb8ef60e9eddaaf9db 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/stat-shadow.c
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 #include "evsel.h"
 #include "stat.h"
 #include "color.h"
+#include "pmu.h"
 
 enum {
 	CTX_BIT_USER	= 1 << 0,
@@ -35,9 +36,15 @@ static struct stats runtime_dtlb_cache_stats[NUM_CTX][MAX_NR_CPUS];
 static struct stats runtime_cycles_in_tx_stats[NUM_CTX][MAX_NR_CPUS];
 static struct stats runtime_transaction_stats[NUM_CTX][MAX_NR_CPUS];
 static struct stats runtime_elision_stats[NUM_CTX][MAX_NR_CPUS];
+static bool have_frontend_stalled;
 
 struct stats walltime_nsecs_stats;
 
+void perf_stat__init_shadow_stats(void)
+{
+	have_frontend_stalled = pmu_have_event("cpu", "stalled-cycles-frontend");
+}
+
 static int evsel_context(struct perf_evsel *evsel)
 {
 	int ctx = 0;
@@ -323,7 +330,7 @@ void perf_stat__print_shadow_stats(struct perf_evsel *evsel,
 			print_metric(ctxp, NULL, "%7.2f ",
 					"stalled cycles per insn",
 					ratio);
-		} else {
+		} else if (have_frontend_stalled) {
 			print_metric(ctxp, NULL, NULL,
 				     "stalled cycles per insn", 0);
 		}
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/stat.h b/tools/perf/util/stat.h
index f02af68adc0487c7e35bd710eb0be23ba6836da6..0150e786ccc7c1f48e407323b606f47155a076c9 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/stat.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/stat.h
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ typedef void (*print_metric_t)(void *ctx, const char *color, const char *unit,
 			       const char *fmt, double val);
 typedef void (*new_line_t )(void *ctx);
 
+void perf_stat__init_shadow_stats(void);
 void perf_stat__reset_shadow_stats(void);
 void perf_stat__update_shadow_stats(struct perf_evsel *counter, u64 *count,
 				    int cpu);