diff --git a/libs/backends/pulseaudio/pulseaudio_backend.cc b/libs/backends/pulseaudio/pulseaudio_backend.cc
index 5f9dc799e6..a51c759666 100644
--- a/libs/backends/pulseaudio/pulseaudio_backend.cc
+++ b/libs/backends/pulseaudio/pulseaudio_backend.cc
@@ -633,7 +633,6 @@ PulseAudioBackend::_start (bool /*for_latency_measurement*/)
 		if (pbd_pthread_create (PBD_RT_STACKSIZE_PROC, &_main_thread, pthread_process, this)) {
 			PBD::error << _("PulseAudioBackend: failed to create process thread.") << endmsg;
 			stop ();
-			_run = false;
 			return ProcessThreadStartError;
 		} else {
 			PBD::warning << _("PulseAudioBackend: cannot acquire realtime permissions.") << endmsg;