diff --git a/builtin-blame.c b/builtin-blame.c
index 9b9f5442a2..e462a6ec50 100644
--- a/builtin-blame.c
+++ b/builtin-blame.c
@@ -2251,6 +2251,10 @@ int cmd_blame(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix)
 parse_done:
 	argc = parse_options_end(&ctx);
 
+	if (revs_file && read_ancestry(revs_file))
+		die("reading graft file %s failed: %s",
+		    revs_file, strerror(errno));
+
 	if (cmd_is_annotate)
 		output_option |= OUTPUT_ANNOTATE_COMPAT;
 
@@ -2392,10 +2396,6 @@ parse_done:
 	sb.ent = ent;
 	sb.path = path;
 
-	if (revs_file && read_ancestry(revs_file))
-		die("reading graft file %s failed: %s",
-		    revs_file, strerror(errno));
-
 	read_mailmap(&mailmap, ".mailmap", NULL);
 
 	if (!incremental)