diff --git a/stack.sh b/stack.sh
index cd7a24f..33d96ac 100755
--- a/stack.sh
+++ b/stack.sh
@@ -216,6 +216,14 @@
     echo 'APT::Acquire::Retries "20";' | sudo tee /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/80retry
 fi
 
+# upstream Rackspace centos7 images have an issue where cloud-init is
+# installed via pip because there were not official packages when the
+# image was created (fix in the works).  Remove all pip packages
+# before we do anything else
+if [[ $DISTRO = "rhel7" && is_rackspace ]]; then
+    (sudo pip freeze | xargs sudo pip uninstall -y) || true
+fi
+
 # Some distros need to add repos beyond the defaults provided by the vendor
 # to pick up required packages.