diff --git a/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c b/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c
index 672fb41345c9..64081c8eacc8 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c
+++ b/kernel/rcu/srcutree.c
@@ -259,7 +259,12 @@ static int init_srcu_struct_fields(struct srcu_struct *ssp, bool is_static, bool
 	mutex_init(&ssp->srcu_sup->srcu_barrier_mutex);
 	atomic_set(&ssp->srcu_sup->srcu_barrier_cpu_cnt, 0);
 	INIT_DELAYED_WORK(&ssp->srcu_sup->work, process_srcu);
-	init_irq_work(&ssp->srcu_sup->irq_work, srcu_irq_work);
+	/*
+	 * trace events started on the command line require SRCU before
+	 * the irq_work kthread starts. Since all it does is a simple
+	 * wakeup, having it as a hard irq, even on PREEMPT_RT is fine.
+	 */
+	ssp->srcu_sup->irq_work = IRQ_WORK_INIT_HARD(srcu_irq_work);
 	ssp->srcu_sup->sda_is_static = is_static;
 	if (!is_static) {
 		ssp->sda = alloc_percpu(struct srcu_data);