Kid Rock follows Tyler Perry, pays off $81K of layaways

Holiday cheer is contagious.

Days after actor and director Tyler Perry dropped more than $400,000 to pay off all the layaway items at two Atlanta-area Walmarts, musician Kid Rock followed suit in his adopted hometown of Nashville, reportedly playing Santa for hundreds of families.

“Great idea!” the rap-rocker wrote in response to a tweet by Perry about his own kind deed. “I followed your lead and paid off the layaway at my local Walmart in Nashville. Merry Christmas and God Bless You!”

True to his word, Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, forked over about $81,000 to pay down every last layaway balance — covering some 350 accounts — at a Walmart in the Music City, according to The Tennessean.

Kid Rock called the big-box store Friday to explain his plan, then sent his manager by later in the day to fork over the hefty sum, the paper reported.

Each person who benefited from the not-so-secret Santa is also being a handed a card that reads, “Merry Christmas from your neighbor! -Kid Rock.”

Lucky Nashville residents were overjoyed to find that Christmas had come early.

“It’s such a burden lifted off of our shoulders knowing that our kids will have Christmas,” said mom Autumn Nuccio, who had among her haul a guitar she picked out for her 3-year-old son.

“[Kid Rock] bought my son his first guitar,” gushed the boy’s father, Woody Nuccio, to The Tennessean.

The move came days after “Madea” creator Tyler Perry paid down roughly $430,000 in goods at two Georgia Walmarts, leaving their rightful owners only needing to pay one penny to pick up the items.

The good deed is a turnaround for Kid Rock, who last month found himself on the naughty list — and was booted as the grand marshal for Nashville’s Christmas Parade — after a “Fox & Friends” appearance in which he called “The View” co-host Joy Behar a “bitch.”

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