MTV's star dad and husband, Ozzy Osbourne, 53, apparently just doesn't have the stomach to witness wife Sharon, 49, undergoing medical treatment for cancer. "After attending his wife Sharon's first chemotherapy treatment, he nearly passed out and had to be taken to a recovery room," family publicist Lisa Vega said in a statement released Thursday and reported by Reuters. "Sharon now realizes that Ozzy is better off on the road, so she's shipped him back out to finish Ozzfest." The rocker announced last weekend that he was taking a three-week break from the music fest to be at Sharon's side as she is treated for colon cancer, which, as PEOPLE reported in its cover story two weeks ago, has spread to her lymph nodes. Her chemotherapy is expected to last three months. Ozzy will still miss two Ozzfest dates in Ohio -- Aug. 3 in Columbus and Aug. 4 in Cleveland -- and will resume his month-long road trek in Clarkston, Mich., on Aug. 7, according to the news service.

Read PEOPLE's recent cover story on Sharon Osbourne's cancer battle, "Heavy Mettle Mom."