The late Cosby was a Baptist minister who spent most of his life in Arizona. But in the 1940s, while studying at Biola College, Cosby founded a pioneering Western-style gospel band, the Christian Cowboys, which he continued to lead for a few years upon graduation. After seeing Merle Travis play his Paul Bigsby guitar, Cosby acquired a trio of electric Bigsbys: a standard guitar, a tenor guitar, and an 8-string mandolin.