diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c1cf7bc06bbd..ecdf8a1c4f39 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 
 ### Improvements
 
+* [#12981](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12981) Return proper error when parsing telemetry configuration.
 * [#12969](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12969) Bump Tendermint to `v0.34.21` and IAVL to `v0.19.1`.
 * [#12886](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12886) Amortize cost of processing cache KV store.
 * (events) [#12850](https://github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/pull/12850) Add a new `fee_payer` attribute to the `tx` event that is emitted from the `DeductFeeDecorator` AnteHandler decorator.
diff --git a/server/config/config.go b/server/config/config.go
index bd0ba7ae58ce..d77aab06f934 100644
--- a/server/config/config.go
+++ b/server/config/config.go
@@ -287,11 +287,18 @@ func DefaultConfig() *Config {
 }
 
 // GetConfig returns a fully parsed Config object.
-func GetConfig(v *viper.Viper) Config {
-	globalLabelsRaw := v.Get("telemetry.global-labels").([]interface{})
+func GetConfig(v *viper.Viper) (Config, error) {
+	globalLabelsRaw, ok := v.Get("telemetry.global-labels").([]interface{})
+	if !ok {
+		return Config{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse global-labels config")
+	}
+
 	globalLabels := make([][]string, 0, len(globalLabelsRaw))
-	for _, glr := range globalLabelsRaw {
-		labelsRaw := glr.([]interface{})
+	for idx, glr := range globalLabelsRaw {
+		labelsRaw, ok := glr.([]interface{})
+		if !ok {
+			return Config{}, fmt.Errorf("failed to parse global label number %d from config", idx)
+		}
 		if len(labelsRaw) == 2 {
 			globalLabels = append(globalLabels, []string{labelsRaw[0].(string), labelsRaw[1].(string)})
 		}
@@ -356,7 +363,7 @@ func GetConfig(v *viper.Viper) Config {
 			SnapshotInterval:   v.GetUint64("state-sync.snapshot-interval"),
 			SnapshotKeepRecent: v.GetUint32("state-sync.snapshot-keep-recent"),
 		},
-	}
+	}, nil
 }
 
 // ValidateBasic returns an error if min-gas-prices field is empty in BaseConfig. Otherwise, it returns nil.
diff --git a/server/start.go b/server/start.go
index 7be0cec68be0..e0a97bb931cf 100644
--- a/server/start.go
+++ b/server/start.go
@@ -209,7 +209,13 @@ func startStandAlone(ctx *Context, appCreator types.AppCreator) error {
 	}
 
 	app := appCreator(ctx.Logger, db, traceWriter, ctx.Viper)
-	_, err = startTelemetry(serverconfig.GetConfig(ctx.Viper))
+
+	config, err := serverconfig.GetConfig(ctx.Viper)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	_, err = startTelemetry(config)
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -272,7 +278,11 @@ func startInProcess(ctx *Context, clientCtx client.Context, appCreator types.App
 		return err
 	}
 
-	config := serverconfig.GetConfig(ctx.Viper)
+	config, err := serverconfig.GetConfig(ctx.Viper)
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
 	if err := config.ValidateBasic(); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}