diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3c562472b..fe356d045 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ MPD 0.14.1 - not yet released
 * input_curl:
   - use select() to eliminate busy loop during connect
   - honour http_proxy_* config directives
+  - fix assertion failure on "connection refused"
 * log: automatically append newline
 * fix setenv() conflict on Solaris
 * configure.ac: check for pkg-config before using it
diff --git a/src/input_curl.c b/src/input_curl.c
index d3bc219c8..8372f9924 100644
--- a/src/input_curl.c
+++ b/src/input_curl.c
@@ -926,6 +926,12 @@ input_curl_open(struct input_stream *is, const char *url)
 		return false;
 	}
 
+	ret = input_curl_multi_info_read(is);
+	if (!ret) {
+		input_curl_free(is);
+		return false;
+	}
+
 	return true;
 }