After being nominated for Grammy awards in four different categories for the album Nick of Time, Raitt went for a creative retreat in Northern California to begin work on Luck of the Draw.

"In case I won, I wanted to make sure that I had done some writing and didn't feel that Nick of Time was a fluke.

I didn't want to win just 'cause I quit drinking and spent twenty years not making any money, you know?

The album surpassed Nick of Time's commercial success, having sold seven million copies in the United States alone by 2010, and was supported by a 180-date tour from 1991 to 1993.

In the liner notes, Raitt dedicated this album to blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in 1990 and had encouraged her to stop abusing alcohol, writing: "still burning bright".