diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index a8a5ddeaeb..c5f2a1b92c 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
  * Allow empty keystore_password in encryption_options (CASSANDRA-18778)
  * Skip ColumnFamilyStore#topPartitions initialization when client or tool mode (CASSANDRA-18697)
 Merged from 4.0:
+ * Gossip NPE due to shutdown event corrupting empty statuses (CASSANDRA-18913)
  * Fix closing iterator in SecondaryIndexBuilder (CASSANDRA-18361)
  * Update hdrhistogram to 2.1.12 (CASSANDRA-18893)
  * Improve performance of compactions when table does not have an index (CASSANDRA-18773)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/EndpointState.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/EndpointState.java
index c60a4793bd..198946fa51 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/EndpointState.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/EndpointState.java
@@ -196,6 +196,11 @@ public class EndpointState
         isAlive = false;
     }
 
+    public boolean isStateEmpty()
+    {
+        return applicationState.get().isEmpty();
+    }
+
     /**
      * @return true if {@link HeartBeatState#isEmpty()} is true and no STATUS application state exists
      */
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java
index 4a32662dcf..0d5db5f81c 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/gms/Gossiper.java
@@ -590,7 +590,7 @@ public class Gossiper implements IFailureDetectionEventListener, GossiperMBean
     {
         checkProperThreadForStateMutation();
         EndpointState epState = endpointStateMap.get(endpoint);
-        if (epState == null)
+        if (epState == null || epState.isStateEmpty())
             return;
         VersionedValue shutdown = StorageService.instance.valueFactory.shutdown(true);
         epState.addApplicationState(ApplicationState.STATUS_WITH_PORT, shutdown);
diff --git a/test/distributed/org/apache/cassandra/distributed/test/gossip/GossipShutdownTest.java b/test/distributed/org/apache/cassandra/distributed/test/gossip/GossipShutdownTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..59ac4feeeb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/distributed/org/apache/cassandra/distributed/test/gossip/GossipShutdownTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package org.apache.cassandra.distributed.test.gossip;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import org.apache.cassandra.distributed.Cluster;
+import org.apache.cassandra.distributed.api.Feature;
+import org.apache.cassandra.distributed.api.IInvokableInstance;
+import org.apache.cassandra.distributed.api.TokenSupplier;
+import org.apache.cassandra.distributed.shared.ClusterUtils;
+import org.apache.cassandra.distributed.test.TestBaseImpl;
+import org.apache.cassandra.net.Verb;
+
+public class GossipShutdownTest extends TestBaseImpl
+{
+    @Test
+    public void emptyStateAndShutdownEvent() throws IOException
+    {
+        try (Cluster cluster = builder()
+                               .withNodes(2)
+                               .withConfig(c -> c.with(Feature.values()))
+                               .start())
+        {
+            IInvokableInstance n1 = cluster.get(1);
+            IInvokableInstance n2 = cluster.get(2);
+            ClusterUtils.awaitRingJoin(n1, n2);
+            ClusterUtils.awaitRingJoin(n2, n1);
+
+            ClusterUtils.stopUnchecked(n1);
+
+            // make sure we don't see gossip events, but do allow gossip shutdown
+            cluster.filters().verbs(Verb.GOSSIP_DIGEST_ACK.id,
+                                    Verb.GOSSIP_DIGEST_ACK.id,
+                                    Verb.GOSSIP_DIGEST_ACK2.id)
+                   .to(1)
+                   .drop();
+
+            n1.startup();
+
+            n2.nodetoolResult("disablegossip").asserts().success();
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void emptyStateAndHostJoin() throws IOException, InterruptedException
+    {
+        try (Cluster cluster = builder()
+                               .withNodes(2)
+                               .withTokenSupplier(TokenSupplier.evenlyDistributedTokens(3))
+                               .withConfig(c -> c.with(Feature.values()))
+                               .start())
+        {
+            IInvokableInstance n1 = cluster.get(1);
+            IInvokableInstance n2 = cluster.get(2);
+
+            ClusterUtils.awaitRingJoin(n1, n2);
+            ClusterUtils.awaitRingJoin(n2, n1);
+
+            ClusterUtils.stopUnchecked(n1);
+
+            // make sure we don't see gossip events, but do allow gossip shutdown
+            cluster.filters().verbs(Verb.GOSSIP_DIGEST_ACK.id,
+                                    Verb.GOSSIP_DIGEST_ACK.id,
+                                    Verb.GOSSIP_DIGEST_ACK2.id)
+                   .to(1)
+                   .drop();
+
+            n1.startup();
+
+            CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(1);
+            cluster.filters().verbs(Verb.GOSSIP_SHUTDOWN.id).messagesMatching((from, to, iMessage) -> {
+                latch.countDown();
+                return false;
+            }).drop();
+
+            n2.nodetoolResult("disablegossip").asserts().success();
+
+            latch.await();
+            cluster.filters().reset();
+
+            IInvokableInstance n3 = ClusterUtils.addInstance(cluster, n1.config(), c -> {});
+
+            n3.startup();
+        }
+    }
+}