diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 23a930efb..a0749cd0d 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ else ifeq ($(tag),)
 	deb_iteration := 0
 	tar_version := $(version)~$(commit)
 else ifneq ($(findstring -rc,$(tag)),)
-	version := $(word 1,$(subst -, ,$(tag)):v%=%)
+	version := $(word 1,$(subst -, ,$(tag)))
+	version := $(version:v%=%)
 	rc := $(word 2,$(subst -, ,$(tag)))
 	rpm_version := $(version)-0.$(rc)
 	rpm_iteration := 0.$(subst rc,,$(rc))
diff --git a/scripts/release.sh b/scripts/release.sh
index 2a4c4d11d..5f0b3ae45 100644
--- a/scripts/release.sh
+++ b/scripts/release.sh
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ trap on_exit EXIT
 echo "${tmpdir}"
 cd "${tmpdir}" || exit 1
 
-curl -s -S -H Circle-Token:${CIRCLE_TOKEN} \
+curl -s -S -L -H Circle-Token:${CIRCLE_TOKEN} \
 	"https://circleci.com/api/v2/project/gh/influxdata/telegraf/${BUILD_NUM}/artifacts" \
 	-o artifacts || exit 1
 
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ cat artifacts | jq -r '.items[] | "\(.url) \(.path|ltrimstr("build/dist/"))"' >
 while read url path;
 do
 	echo $url
-	curl -s -S -o "$path" "$url" &&
+	curl -s -S -L -o "$path" "$url" &&
 	sha256sum "$path" > "$path.DIGESTS" &&
 	gpg --armor --detach-sign "$path.DIGESTS" &&
 	gpg --armor --detach-sign "$path" || exit 1