diff --git a/hack/version.sh b/hack/version.sh
index 58037048..ea208410 100755
--- a/hack/version.sh
+++ b/hack/version.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ version::get_version_vars() {
 
     # stolen from k8s.io/hack/lib/version.sh
     # Use git describe to find the version based on annotated tags.
-    if [[ -n ${GIT_VERSION-} ]] || GIT_VERSION=$(git describe --abbrev=14 --match "v[0-9]*" 2>/dev/null); then
+    if [[ -n ${GIT_VERSION-} ]] || GIT_VERSION=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=14 --match "v[0-9]*" "${GIT_COMMIT}" 2>/dev/null); then
         # This translates the "git describe" to an actual semver.org
         # compatible semantic version that looks something like this:
         #   v1.1.0-alpha.0.6+84c76d1142ea4d