diff --git a/cmd/kpod/common.go b/cmd/kpod/common.go
index 8dc51237..6d1f5299 100644
--- a/cmd/kpod/common.go
+++ b/cmd/kpod/common.go
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/containers/storage"
 	"github.com/fatih/camelcase"
 	"github.com/kubernetes-incubator/cri-o/libkpod"
-	"github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/urfave/cli"
 )
 
@@ -50,9 +49,6 @@ func getConfig(c *cli.Context) (*libkpod.Config, error) {
 			config.StorageOptions = opts
 		}
 	}
-	if c.Bool("debug") {
-		logrus.SetLevel(logrus.DebugLevel)
-	}
 	if c.GlobalIsSet("runtime") {
 		config.Runtime = c.GlobalString("runtime")
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/kpod/main.go b/cmd/kpod/main.go
index 08b17b83..7ee6d854 100644
--- a/cmd/kpod/main.go
+++ b/cmd/kpod/main.go
@@ -15,7 +15,6 @@ func main() {
 	if reexec.Init() {
 		return
 	}
-	logrus.SetLevel(logrus.ErrorLevel)
 
 	app := cli.NewApp()
 	app.Name = "kpod"
@@ -44,6 +43,13 @@ func main() {
 		statsCommand,
 		loadCommand,
 	}
+	app.Before = func(c *cli.Context) error {
+		logrus.SetLevel(logrus.ErrorLevel)
+		if c.GlobalBool("debug") {
+			logrus.SetLevel(logrus.DebugLevel)
+		}
+		return nil
+	}
 	app.Flags = []cli.Flag{
 		cli.StringFlag{
 			Name:  "config, c",